1. Contribute to the UE (United Electrical) workers Local 1110 Solidarity Fund. The families have to eat, pay rent and utilities.
(look for the paypal Donate button)
http://www.ueunion.org/
2. Send an email message of support over the web:
http://www.ueunion.org/republic_main.html
3. Send an email to Bank of America, demanding that they do the right thing:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bankofamerica
4. Or, do as Fred Klonsky did, and get out there and bring the workers some coffee!
Thanks for this. Folk outside Chicago should start working on putting pressure on BoA locally too.
By: Nate on December 9, 2008
at 3:59 am
Nate – Thanks for your message. And if you can believe what you read on sites like Huffingtonpost.com and others, it sounds like lots of people are doing what you suggest – and closing accounts with BofA, too!
Has anyone got any news on how the “meeting/negotiations” that were supposed to take place went? I haven’t seen or found any news on it yet.
By: the author on December 9, 2008
at 4:40 am
Now I believe the workers should be paid, but I do fault that everyone has taken Republic’s misdirection play and is blaming a bank. How come no one is picketing the home of the owner? Didn’t his wife just start Echo and buy a factory the same day as closing this one? How did she pay for that? Why didn’t they file for bankruptcy? What assets are left in Republic?
Also the slime at Republic are the ones that gave the ‘time line’ of how they tried to get money for the poor workers. I believe the truth is that they sucked money out of Republic to buy the other company and hopes everyone will look to the big bank, who did nothing wrong, to take the blood off their hands.
By: Rich on December 9, 2008
at 11:01 pm
Rich – Based on what I know, I tend to agree with you. It certainly seems like Republic knew what they were doing, starting another company all the while “negotiating” with BofA. But I think the anger at BofA is definitely understandable. Without knowing more about the actual terms of the credit or the solvency of Republic, maybe they are at fault, maybe not.
By: the author on December 9, 2008
at 11:11 pm