Republic Windows & Doors - What's wrong with America today? Transparency?

[WhiskeyGirl]

How many cases like Republic Windows and Doors are there in America today?

For those that may not remember, a little back ground from memory - for some reason, Bank of America cut off credit late in 2008, the company didn't have the means to continue production.  Never found out who made that decision and why.  IIRC, the bank got TARP money.

I remember reading that sales had dropped off to 70% of previous levels.  Union workers got little notice, and occupied the building.  The story made the national news.

One of the first post 2008 articles I noticed was this one (apparently someone was making a documentary) -

CBS NEWS: More than 200 of Republic Windows and Doors’ 300 union workers are staging a sit-in of sorts until they get what is legally owed to them. The union says company officials told employees they were closing shop because Bank of America would no longer extend Republic a line of credit. Bank of America wouldn’t confirm that, due to confidentiality concerns. Workers say the fact that Bank of America received $25 billion in the federal bailout makes this even more unacceptable.

FACTORY WORKERS: You got bailed out! We got sold out!

PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: These workers, if they have earned these benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments.

REV. JESSE JACKSON: Workers all around the nation who are now facing massive layoffs, it’s your job, it’s your plant. Stay there and fight for them ’til justice comes. And justice will come.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Could you tell us a little bit about what’s happened to the factory since? There were reports about a couple of months ago that a new buyer came in and is reopening the factory?

ARMANDO ROBLES: Yeah, in December, the end of December, I receive a call in the union hall from a guy from California, and he is interested to buy Republic Windows and Doors facility, and we have an agreement to bring him to Chicago. We showed the company, and we introduced him to the government and the bank to start dealing to the possible buy-in. In like a month and a half, they conclude the buy. We have our—we negotiate our own contract for four years, and we go forward with this.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And how many of the workers have returned to the factory?

ARMANDO ROBLES: Right now are ten workers, because we don’t have a lot of sales right now. We expect starting getting sales to rehire the 275 workers.

http://i1.democracynow.org/2009/5/15/chicago_window_factory_re_opens_with

What commitments do these companies need to follow through on?  What do they owe these workers? 

Who is the 'union hall' guy from California?  When did he visit the factory and who gave him the tour?  Who gave him the keys?  Was this sale number one?

What bank financed the deal?  Did the union guy buy just the facility?  Company?

What 'rights' to millions of American's whose jobs have moved to China, Mexico, or elsewhere have?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Who at Bank of America made the decision to stop loaning money to Republic Window?  Why? 

What are the owners to do?

As the Republic Windows sit-in grabbed the nation's attention early last week, the Chi-Town Daily News discovered that the Republic owners had purchased a window factory in Red Oak, Iowa at the same time that they decided to abruptly shutter the Chicago plant.  Since then, Republic's financial backers -- Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase -- agreed to settle the dispute and the sit-in ended.  But the ordeal is fresh in the minds of some Iowa labor leaders, according to the Midland News Service:

http://www.progressillinois.com/2008/12/15/iowa-disturbed-republic-windows

The question in my mind, when did the family know BOA would not continue to fund them?  Why? 

Did they pay cash for the new business?  Maybe there was some advantage to the new business?  Product?  Where did they get the money/financing for the new business?

[WhiskeyGirl]

Here are some additional nuggets to consider -

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) announced earlier this week that a Chicago-based manufacturing company, Republic Windows & Doors, violated national labor laws when it shut down its unionized plant and relocated operations to a non-union company in Iowa. Republic became the focus of national attention in December after a six-day sit-in by workers that even elicited support from President Barack Obama. The NLRB found that Republic created Iowa-based Echo Windows as “an alter-ego entity” so the company could avoid its collective bargaining obligations with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110. Republic must now reach a settlement with the union, or else the NLRB will issue a formal complaint against it. Republic blamed the plant closing on Bank of America for cutting off its credit line.

http://www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Labor_Board_Charges_Republic_Window_with_Anti_Union_Trick_90404

I have to wonder how long Republic knew it was losing it's line of credit.  It seems to me that the folks in Iowa had jobs too - just not union jobs.

UE then pressed its advantage with a “Vote UE” flyer featuring photos of more than 200 workers and a stepped-up presence at the factory entrance. The day before the election a member of the Chicago City Council, UE’s director of organization, UE District 11 Pres. Carl Rosen and volunteers from nearby UE locals worked the plant gates on the union’s behalf. Meanwhile, workers and organizers passed out letters with endorsements of the campaign by an African-American Member of Congress and a Latino state senator.

http://www.ueunion.org/uenewsupdates.html?news=185

Is it the place of government to promote unions?  I still wonder who cut off the company's credit.

Who are the workers at Republic?

The majority of the factory’s workers are immigrant workers from South and Central America who have perhaps the most to lose. Like many other low-paid workers, they live paycheck to paycheck. But unlike U.S.-born workers, they bear the brunt of possible deportation, and all of the workers, both foreign and U.S. born, who are Latina/o and Black, face a daily battle against racism.

Why would any of these workers worry about deportation?   Sorry, no job for you American citizen and those here legally. 

In the 1986 book “High Tech, Low Pay,” in the section on “Offensive Strategies: Workers Control,” its author, Sam Marcy, explains: “There are means by which the workers can go beyond the established capital-labor relationship that is the framework of capitalist exploitation. They can seize and occupy the plants and thereby force a new and different type of crisis on the ruling class, instead of remaining in a narrow, often frustrating endurance contest between the employers and the workers.”

What the Republic Windows workers showed in practice and made public at press conferences was that their occupation was in defense of preserving their assets. During the period that they stayed, the company could not remove the equipment. In essence, they preserved their property right to a job.

This concept, that workers have a right to their job as strong as any other property right, must be deepened and popularized in every worker’s mind during this period when layoffs are sweeping the country.

Don't American's who lose their jobs to people in China and Mexico and other places have any rights?  Job losses over seas have been going on for years and no one in government seems to care. 

I keep hearing Obama support participation in 'free trade' even if jobs are lost.  For some reason, it's not OK to move those jobs to another state and keep them in America. 

http://www.workers.org/2009/us/republic_1225/

Maybe he financial crisis was created?  Wheels put in motion years ago with the promotion of risky loans and casino style finance?

So sorry, no jobs for you American citizens and those here legally...

Government doesn't care if your job goes overseas...

Still have to wonder why companies receiving bailout money 'recovery and reinvest' money weren't expected to use E-Verify to ensure taxpayer money benefitted citizens and those here legally.

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

March 30th, 2009 05:00 AM - Republic Windows and Doors violated national labor laws when it shut down its unionized Chicago plant and moved work to a non-union company in Iowa, the National Labor Relations board alleges based on its investigation.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1502423,republic31web-windows-doors-033009.article

Hmmm...shortly after Obama takes office.  No one seems to care about jobs that go overseas, and the companies that send them.

Just let a small AMERICAN owned company move jobs to IOWA and BANG - they're all of a sudden horrible people and companies.

IT SEEMS LIKE IT'S OK IF AMERICAN JOBS GO TO PLACES LIKE CHINA, BUT NOT TO IOWA.  Why is that? 

Is this some kind destruction of the nation's existing business?  Destroy family businesses?  Businesses that were in operation for generations?

No one seems to care if jobs go offshore - they just can't go to Iowa.

Open and Shut Case at Window and Door Factory
Or is that a Shut and Open Case in a very real class war?

A company managed by the wife of Republic Windows and Doors owner Richard Gillman recently purchased an Iowa plant that manufactures similar products, according to public records.

Gillman has come under fire in recent days for abruptly closing Republic's Goose Island plant and refusing to provide workers there with the 60 days notice and pay required by federal labor law.

Echo Windows and Doors was created two weeks ago and lists Sharon Gillman as its manager, according copies of records obtained by the Daily News from the Iowa Secretary of the State. According to Cook County property tax records, Sharon Gillman is Richard Gillman's wife.

The couple purchased a $2.6 million Oak Street condo together in 2007, according to property records.

from the comments -

Submitted by rba on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 17:03.
BofA has provided the loan/line-of-credit for the workers. I'm no happier than anyone else about the workers being stiffed by the *owners*. Further, as someone who has been actively looking for work in my trade for a very, very long time, and who is one of those on the bleeding f*cking edge of this meltdown, I *really* don't appreciate your 'comfortable chair' reference.

The fact the owner of the company was obviously screwing the workers by crossing a State line to open a new business is what I'd call a "material fact", and one left out of all previous coverage.

Cynical? Oh hell yes: who loaned them the money for Echo? When? How much? Under what terms? Are the new company's employees union? Moving to avoid payments, and reforming companies is a common occurrence in the construction business. Have the owners pulled this stunt before? If so, where? How long have they been in business? Previous lawsuits filed? Bankruptcies?

Given the timeline here, not having those answers is simply sloppy reporting, which up to this point diverted attention from the true 'guilty party'. However this turns out in the end, I believe the worker's will get their money - and before Christmas. But that has nothing to do with Bank of America's acceptance of Treasury's loan. And it damn sure has nothing to do with me.

Where is the outrage when other jobs with LARGE global companies go offshore?  Some of these companies became global by moving jobs offshore years ago.  Didn't their workers have rights?

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/3267

Maybe these will be jobs Obama counts in the 'new or created' category.  Just need to pass that Fraud and Tax Cap and Trade bill.

Sorry, no jobs for you American citizen and those here legally.

It seems like there are many reasons to keep the economy in a downward death spiral.  Need more time for 'special interests to buy up the closed and dying factories...then start hiring again when all this is done.  Just need to pass the spending/'green' bills to fuel the recovery and let future generations pay.  Special interests profit.

No jobs for Americans.

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

What did Bank of America spend the TARP money on?  On comment seems to think that money went to China -

SanDiegoView (not verified) on Mon, 12/08/2008 - 06:35

The $15 billion of $25 billion at least that went to Bank of America (Republic's banker and line of commercial credit) as part of the $700 billion taxpayer suckers bailout of the financial institutions...Bank of America used that money to increase it stock position in the China Construction Bank to 19.8%, not aid/help/assist a company like Republic with American workers. Bushco sucker punched the American people financially and the Democrats did not have the courage to stop it, and still don't.

http://www.progressillinois.com/2008/12/7/republic-windows-takes-seat

Weren't DEMOCRATS in control of Congress for TARP?

[WhiskeyGirl]

What happened to those jobs in Iowa?

Republic Windows Owners Abandon Another Factory (UPDATED)

The AP explains:

A window manufacturing company in Red Oak is closing, eliminating 100 jobs.

Echo Windows LLC says it’s ceasing operations on Monday.

In a news release on Sunday, the Chicago family that bought the plant last year blames the economy.

http://www.progressillinois.com/2009/2/23/republic-windows-iowa-factory-closed

Maybe they couldn't hold out for the stimulus to start working?  Anyone feel the stimulus yet?

Maybe the stimulus is waiting for the Cap and Trade, and Immigration Reform bills? 

Maybe, it's not that anyone is against Americans and those here legally, they're just 'FOR' all these other folks.

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

After the union guy, government and bankers from Washington and places unknown, in steps the Sierra Club. 

EFCA: Making Green Jobs, Good Jobs

Last December, Republic Windows, maker of energy-efficient windows, gained worldwide attention when members of United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers (UE) Local 1110 occupied the plant after their company refused to provide them with severance pay. After a six-day occupation, in which President Obama declared his support for the occupying workers, the UE members won their struggle for severance pay and established a committee to look for buyers to reopen the Chicago plant.

Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace, at the urging of the Sierra Club, became interested in buying the plant to produce energy-efficient windows. The Sierra Club had a long relationship of working with the UE on economic and environmental issues, and they facilitated the initial conversations about reopening the plant between UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles and Serious Materials CEO Kevin Surace. As a result, the union was able to work out a contract with Serious Materials and helped the company purchase the factory in bankruptcy...

Who helped form the committee to look for buyers?  Where did they get their authority?

Is the Sierra Club a union organizing entity?

Article dated April 28, 2009-

On Monday, Republic Windows and Doors reopened and started producing energy-efficient windows. Vice President Joe Biden attended the opening ceremony and praised the CEO of the company for bringing back the workers and their union:

“Instead of doing what has too often been the case in the last, I would argue, 10 to 15 years, you reached out for the most qualified workers in the world. Instead of saying, if you want to come back I’m going to break your union, you said, come back, union and all. That’s a big deal.”

Who's buying those windows?  Who's providing the capitol?  Business loans?

I would not be so quick to highly praise Serious Material’s CEO. This window manufacturer recently reopened a less famous factory in Vandergrift, Pa., without recognizing the union. The Pennsylvania facility had been unionized under its previous employer. When Serious reopened the facility, the workers were without the protection of their union and, unlike the workers at the reopened Chicago plant, were hired back without the seniority rights established under their previous contract.

Yesterday, I asked Surace why he brought back the union in Chicago and not in Vandergrift. Mr. Surace said it was because the union in Chicago had been very active and had he not brought the union back the “workers would have been outside protesting.” In the Pennsylvania factory, Surace said the union had not been as “active” as the UE workers in Chicago and hence he saw no reason to bring the union back.

...As Carl Rosen, President of UE Western Region correctly noted: “The former Republic Windows and Doors workers showed that simply relying on market forces and unregulated banks and corporations cannot provide an economy that works for the American people,”

Indeed, according to a recent news article, the Sierra Club has identified the Employee Free Choice Act as one of its top two priorities. At first glance, it might seem odd that an environmental organization would launch an aggressive ad campaign advocating for labor law reform. Yet one of the the biggest barriers facing companies that desire to invest in green technologies today is the decline in consumer spending power. In order to create a green economy that can endure, it is critical that we create green jobs that pay a living wage, allowing workers to purchase the products they produce. As noted economist Dean Baker noted, an economy which values workers is not prone to bubbles and crashes:

“A balanced economy, in which workers share in the gains of growth, is not conducive to financial bubbles. We didn’t have any major bubbles in the three decades following World War II. During this period, productivity gains were passed on in wage gains, which in turn fed consumption, which led firms to invest in expanded capacity. The basis for the bubble economy was created in the 80s when this virtuous circle broke down and workers could no longer count on seeing their wages rise in step with productivity.”

Don't workers need jobs?  What about job losses to foreign countries?  Didn't they add to the bubbles to?

http://www.theseminal.com/2009/04/28/efca-making-green-jobs-good-jobs/

Why is it that the former owners of Republic lost their financial access in 2008?  Why is it that this new dealer could get some kind of financing? 

Who made all these decisions?  Why should the former owners lose everything AND get in trouble with the NLRB?

What about all those jobs shifted overseas?  To places in the U.S. like Iowa?

jmho

[WhiskeyGirl]

Why didn't the workers buy the company?

The union had originally hoped to raise money to reopen and run the factory as a worker-owned cooperative, but were glad to see Serious Materials step in, according to UE Local 1110 president Armando Robles and other members.

"We would have liked to run the factory ourselves, but things don't really work that way in this country," said Vicente Rangel, 35, who worked at the factory for 15 years. Since the factory closing he looked for work with little luck and took classes in computer skills. "There are not too many jobs out there," he said. "I'm a little bit surprised and glad to be back here. The workers stayed united and we were able to do this."

In March, Serious Materials also reopened a Pittsburgh area window factory. Surace said he expects the ARRA to create vastly increased demand for their windows, from government buildings and homeowners. He said he is working with city officials in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and Pittsburgh to design requests for stimulus dollars for replacing windows in government buildings."We hope other people look at the Recovery Act and have the confidence to begin buying plants," said Surace. "We happen to have had the right technology, the cash, the ability to do it at the right time. We hope there will be hundreds of companies out there doing it."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/27/biden_hails_stimulus_bill_at_c.html

[WhiskeyGirl]

It looks like a smart purchase in light of the cap and trade 'jobs' bill now being considered.  I wonder how much these folks will make? 

Are these really 'good' jobs for the country if they're paid for by taxpayer dollars? 

Money that will need to be paid back by future generations of Americans?  I wonder who's buying all those windows?

I wonder how many other companies have been lost during the past few months and how many more are on the brink, their current owners just waiting for the Obama stimulus money to kick in?

Maybe it will be to late for most other owners.  They'll go under, while other groups have access to money and financing. 

I remember the Donald on GVS the other day, saying the banks won't loan money, even if you have a deal that will create jobs.

Something is really wrong with this country. 

Why are all the folks on Main Street losing their businesses and jobs? 

[WhiskeyGirl]

This case was on the news 24/7 for a while.  Who now owns this company?  Workers?

Why can't workers have run this company as a 'worker-owned cooperative'?  That seems to be the American way to me - give the little guy a chance.  Own a piece of the action, correct the capitalism that ISN'T working...according to some.

The union had originally hoped to raise money to reopen and run the factory as a worker-owned cooperative, but were glad to see Serious Materials step in, according to UE Local 1110 president Armando Robles and other members.

"We would have liked to run the factory ourselves, but things don't really work that way in this country," said Vicente Rangel, 35, who worked at the factory for 15 years.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/04/27/biden_hails_stimulus_bill_at_c.html

Who really owns Serious Materials?  Investment companies?  Hedge funds?  Foreigners?

Did all these big global organizations finance this at taxpayer expense?  The burder on future generations of taxpayers?

Who made the decision at BOA and the other banks to shut off the credit to the owners of Republic in late 2008? 

Who made the decision to offer financing to the owners to meet the employee severance needs? 

Who financed the sale to the Serious Materials group? 

Who is behind all the layers of ownership at Serious Materials?

jmho and questions

[Edward]

Obamagedon.. Gerald predicts trends for the future of US.

The scary part almost everything he had first predicted "which I posted at scared monkeys" has already come true..

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=6568403&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/

[WhiskeyGirl]

Obamagedon.. Gerald predicts trends for the future of US.

The scary part almost everything he had first predicted "which I posted at scared monkeys" has already come true..

http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=6568403&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/

I agree.  An excellent video.

I have to believe that Republic Window is part of Obama's green revival of the urban area. 

This guy predicts tent cities, boss nappings, food riots by 2012.

The administration isn't selling reality. 

People are losing everything.  They're not just losing their jobs, but their pensions.  Kids going to school, where are the jobs.

A good video.

The destruction of the American Republic. 

He also talks about how to fix the problem.  "Too big to fail is balogna, follow the money..."

"Too big to fail is killing Main Street"

[WhiskeyGirl]

Why can't workers run and own the company?  The GE connection explained -

Surace inherited much of his intensity from his father, a retired Army man and longtime General Electric executive who adapted the rigor-and-results focus of both those organizations to running his household.

GE...we bring good things to life...

Right after Christmas, Surace flew to Chicago and met with Carl Rosen, president of the Western Region of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, and several workers from the plant. Rosen calls Surace's approach "a little unusual." In most cases, says Rosen, a prospective buyer will contact the union only after he has talked to someone who has the legal authority to sell. "Kevin came directly to us, because he understood the importance of the skilled work force to making this work," Rosen says. The parties agreed that Serious Materials would run a union shop, bring back employees at their old salaries, and recognize workers' seniority.

Only then did Surace approach Bank of America, Republic's chief lender. "I said to them, 'You just took $20 billion from the Feds. Give us the thing for $1 and look like heroes.' " When that didn't fly, Surace laid out an offer of several million dollars -- and a deadline of two weeks. "One minute after the deadline, we sent a new offer that was half the price of the old offer and gave them 24 hours to accept that," says Surace. That deadline passed as well. Unperturbed, Surace took another approach: He went to General Electric and paid $900,000 for the lease on Republic's manufacturing equipment. With the equipment and a collective bargaining agreement in hand, he obtained the remaining assets from the bank -- chiefly computers and software -- for just $500,000. (He later arranged a lease with Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, owner of the building.) "It was a very creative negotiation," says Surace.

Now we have the caulk stimulus to help out.  I wonder how many will be going back to work?

read more here - http://www.inc.com/magazine/20091201/entrepreneur-of-the-year-kevin-surace-of-serious-materials.html

I wonder what I could get from BOA for a buck?  I'm still waiting for my billion dollar bailout.