Last December, working people around the world celebrated the victory of the Republic Window and Door Factory workers, members of United Electrical workers, who occupied their factory for six days and won their struggle to hold Bank of America accountable to pay them the money they were owed at the closing of their factory. Today on Labor Radio we hear about two more factory worker struggles out of Illinois, the Hartmarx suit factory workers in Chicago, members of Workers United, and the Quad City Die Casting factory workers, members of United Electrical Workers. In both of the struggles this spring, the opponent is not Bank of America but its class comrade Wells Fargo. Are banks the new bosses? And why all this militancy out of Illinois?
We talk with activists from both struggles: Robert Ginsburg, founder of the Center on Work and Community Development, who does strategic research for the Hartmarx workers, and Ed Pelegrin, a nine-year employee of Quad City Die Casting and a member of UE Local 1174.