.On the morning of Wednesday, December 3, 2008, employees of Chicago-based Republic Windows & Doors came to work to find out Republic had declared bankruptcy and operations at the plant would end immediately due to the sharp decline in the home construction market. Shocked, the roughly 250 employees later came to collect their paychecks only to be informed that they were not going to be receiving any severance pay, which included accumulated sick and vacation days as well as health insurance benefits.
Soon thereafter, the workers staged a sit-in at the North Side plant. They believed that Republic had violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which states that companies with more than 100 employees are required to give workers at least 60 days advance notice of mass layoffs and closings. Bank of America, Republic's principle lender, who received $25 billion in federal TARP funds, were amongst those blamed for violation of the WARN Act. The union claimed Republic owed workers over $1 million in wages for the required notification period. After initially declining the union any compensation, Bank of America granted a limited amount of credit to Republic to assist closing costs; however, the union stated this did not constitute a satisfactory agreement. According to the New York times, Republic CEO Rich Gillman stipulated that this settlement need also include funds to pay the leases on his BMW and Mercedes, as well as eight weeks worth of salary.
After several days, it was reported that in the months leading up to the close, company CEO Rich Gillman had been moving numerous pieces of equipment off the floor. It was later revealed that Gillman had purchased Echo Windows, a non-union window factory in Red Oak, Iowa. However, the company was purchased in his wife's name in order to clear his name from any discussion of questionable intentions. Iowa, a place with nowhere near the union power of the Chicago area and a largely agricultural state, was the ideal place for Gillman to move his company. Due to non-unionization, Gillman could pay his workers two-thirds less in Iowa than in Chicago. It now also became clear as to where those pieces of equipment had been mysteriously disappearing to.
This by no means concludes the story, though what I have discussed so far encompasses what is pertinent to Marx. The Republic Windows and Doors situation of late 2008 embodies Marx's "fundamental antagonism" perfectly, in which the the self-interest of the capitalists are fundamentally opposed to the self-interest of the workers. Gillman used the decline in the home construction market as a crisis in oreder to cover up and carry out what he had planned on doing with the company all along. Gillman, a capitalist, purchased Echo Windows in order to gain more capital. He knew that by moving to Iowa, a land with little industry and few to no unions, that he could pay his workers only one-third of what he needed to pay them in Chicago. Granted it is probably more expensive to live in Chicago than in Iowa, cost of living is increasing everywhere. It is clear that Gillman was not at all concerned with the self-interest of the workers. He owned a business that operated on alienated labor, a system in which one's labor is done for the benefit of another; the capitalist. He intended to use the severance packages of his workers in order to pay for his BMW and Mercedes and flee from Chicago with an extra $1 million.
It is clear that there is no "Worker's Bill of Rights" that protects people from the greed and irresponsibility of some capitalists. Gillman was not the first and certainly will not be the last to be controlled by his own self-interest without regard for anyone he may hurt along the way.
Sources:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,18655226.html
http://www.chicagocurrent.com/articles/30716-Republic-chief-Gillman-accused-of-using-shell-companies-to-bilk-window-maker
http://www.progressillinois.com/2009/12/9/the-republic-windows-ripple-effect
I remember all this going down. Even though at the time I didn't really know anything about Marx, i felt it was unfair to the workers to be shut out the way they were. The capitalist in this case, Gilman, did everything that Marx is against. What it all comes down to is greed and not paying the workers who are the heart of a company what they deserve. This also ties in with the Harlan County, USA film. Duke Power was against unions and this is same that we see here. You did a good job relaying this situation to Marx.
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