Monday, December 08, 2008
Chicago workers sit-in gains momentum--Illinois governor to halt business with Bank of America
by Larry Geller
People power works. Imagine a governor taking sides with protesting workers. He must have received quite a bit of pressure.
Here’s another way you can send a message to BOA—a website that will send them an email (thanks, Katy!).
According to this CNN story,
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said Monday that the state will temporarily suspend doing business with Bank of America in an act of support for protesting factory workers who were abruptly laid off Friday.
It appears that this company may be planning a “runaway shop.” I remember back when, in New York City, when companies would open plants in Puerto Rico in order to escape a union shop in NY. One day workers would show up and find that everything’s gone from the inside of the building. In the Chicago plant, there are reports that office and factory equipment and parts have been removed.
You can still make that phone call to BOA. 704-386-5681 is their number.
Another inspiration for these workers' actions could be the factory occupations in Argentina in the wake of their massive economic collapse in 2001. Naomi Klein and her partner Avi lewis produced a good documentary about the movement called "The Take." As far as I know, several factories in Argentina are still under worker-occupation, and the workers have taken over production as well, manufacturing goods under a collective model.
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