Good News for Former Republic Windows Workers (the sit in workers)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/5115/good_news_for_former_republic_windows_workers/

Friday October 30 1:07 pm


Republic Windows and Doors employee Felipe Pillado stands inside the factory during workers' occupation of the Chicago facility in December 2008. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

By Kari Lydersen

CHICAGO—Serious Materials, the California company that bought Republic Windows and Doors factory after workers occupied the suddenly-closed factory last year, announced today it will supply windows for the country’s largest home weatherization agency, the Community Economic Development Association of Cook County (CEDA).

The new contract should mean a big uptick in business for Serious Materials, helping the company hire back more of the 250 employees who lost their jobs when Republic Windows closed. So far the company has only hired 17 workers, represented by UE Local 1110, which signed a contract with Serious Materials and helped negotiate the factory purchase last winter.

Serious Materials has promised to hire back all the former Republic Windows workers, some of whom worked at Serious Materials’ California plant this summer.

The delay in rehiring has been caused largely because weatherization funds from the stimulus (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA) have not led to a quick surge in new window orders, as many had hoped. (People throughout the Chicago metro area apply to CEDA for stimulus and other Department of Energy funds to weatherize their homes, which can include installing insulation, new windows, calking and other measures.)

Federal law mandating that workers in the federally funded program be paid a prevailing wage, which in many areas the Department of Labor had not determined until this summer and fall.

FULL story at link.