Huffington Post: Growing Factory Occupations Threaten to Break the Banks

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk/growing-factory-occupatio_b_220937.html

Mike Elk

Journalist, Labor Activist
Posted: June 25, 2009 04:51 PM

So far only one group has been able to force the banks to seriously change their practices - workers occupying their factories.

Last December, members of the United Electrical Workers (UE) employed by Republic Windows and Doors were initially denied severance pay when management announced the closing of their Chicago factory. Bank of America and JPMorganChase refused to continue the company's credit line and to provide severance pay, required under the workers' union contract. Adding insult to injury, the company failed to give 60 days notice of the closing which is required by U.S. law under the federal WARN Act. Workers responded by occupying the plant, protesting the refusal of banks to extend credit under the slogan "You got bailed out, We got sold out".

After a six day occupation and expressions of solidarity from around the world, including from President Obama, the banks caved in and agreed to pay workers' severance pay. However, unionized Republic workers did more than just win back their severance pay, they created a model of direct action which has the potential to hold the banks accountable for their actions.

Prominent scholars like Paul Krugman, Simon Johnson, and Noami Klein have argued that opportunities to dramatically restructure the banking system have diminished greatly as the sense of crisis has decreased. Nobel Prize wining economist Paul Krugman claims that corporate interests have much to lose if real reform were enacted and are in response, pushing the line that the economy is returning to normal in order to kill reform. As my colleague Joshua Holland points out in a must-read piece: "Much of the business establishment has an interest in heading off any attempt to fundamentally transform the economy. After all, when things go south in the 21st century, the big fish are protected -- they get a bailout."

While, the stimulus program and other bailout measures may have prevented economic devastation greater than the Great Depression, the current crisis remains one of the worst in decades. Unemployment is increasing to double digits, credit markets remain frozen, and many people may literally be forced to work until they die, as their retirement accounts have been devastated by gambling on Wall Street. Indeed, there is a potential for the crisis to worsen, as foreclosures increased by 20% from a year ago. At first, foreclosures were caused by the collapse of the sub-prime mortgage industry, but now unemployed workers unable to pay their mortgages are losing their homes at an alarming rate. The economic crisis remains very real. Wall Street, fearing real structural reform and regulation, are attempting to deny the depth of this crisis.

FULL story at link.