Socialist Alternative

The Chicago Factory Occupation and the Future of Workers’ Resistance

Speaker: Ryan Timlin, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 (personal capacity)

On the afternoon of Friday, December 5, the roughly 250 workers at Chicago’s Republic Window and Door factory were told that the factory was closing down and that they would be laid off on only 3 days notice, and illegally denied the roughly $1.5 million of vacation and severance pay owed by the company. The owners claimed they had to close because Bank of America, which has received $25 billion in bailout money from the government, refused to extend them any more credit. Instead of accepting this, the workers decided to occupy the plant. Their action made headline news across the country, becoming a symbol of the mounting anger in U.S. society at the bailout for banks, carried out on the backs of the working class. After a 6-day occupation, Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase agreed to pay $1.75 million to the workers to cover the money they were owed.

Come to a discussion on these events and the future for workers in the U.S. and around the world, and how we can build a fightback to corporate domination.