Workers of the World: Wake from a Deep Sleep

The occupation of Republic Windows and Doors in Illinois by its employees is significant for being the first signs of life in the labor movement in the United States in quite some time. Since the Reagan years, organized labor has been in trouble and on the decline. Now, a group of workers, already aware that they are being laid off, are demanding promised vacation pay and severance packages.

Enter the Bank of Amerika. Refusing to finance a loan for the payout to the workers, BofA, does its part to delay the recovery of the economy. But they are not the only culprits here.

According to the New York Times, the family of Richard Gilman bought up the stock of Republic in 2006 and 2007 and then formed a new windows business, Echo Windows, LLC to open in Iowa. Their goal was to cut fixed-costs. In essence, the owners of Republic decided to move their plant to another state to cut the costs of labor.

This is the heart of the collapse of the American economy. Corporations, manufacturers, independent companies, have all opted to increase the bottom line at the expense of the workers. Showing no loyalty to the very employees that made their companies successful, business has opted to move in order to increase profit margins.

It wasn't that Republic Windows and Doors was a failure or making an obsolete product. They were makers of Energy Star Windows, efficient and affordable, and had orders to fill. Economically, however, it was viable for the company to fold up, move to a place with lower labor costs, and begin anew.

Economically viable, but economically necessary? How many U.S. companies have moved operations to other nations in order to increase profit margins? At the heart of the U.S. economic difficulty is that the workers have been pulled down in a race to the bottom in order that profit margins will increase. We make nothing, we're paid nothing and now we'll buy nothing.

How about using some of the bailout money to allow the workers of Republic to become the owners of the company? Could Bank of Amerika turn loose of some of the bailout money under those conditions? Or will they just keep buying other banks?