Worker Cooperatives and Revolution -- C.5: New Era

Explain the story of New Era Windows in a nutshell.

• Workers demand severance and benefits: its worker-owners are the same workforce that occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in 2008, just as it was closing, to demand the back pay, severance, and temporary healthcare benefits to which they were entitled

• Cause celebre: it was one of the very few factory occupations since the ‘30s, and even Obama spoke well of it

• Partial re-opening, closing, and sit-in: a couple months after the workers’ victory the factory was partially reopened under a new owner, Serious Materials, which three years later, in 2012, announced that it was closing the factory again

  • Workers organized a sit-in to protest the closing, which ended after the owners agreed to keep the factory open for 90 days

• Converting the company into a cooperative: the workers decided to buy the factory themselves and run it as a cooperative

Why do some people say that “the future of America’s labor movement will be written in Spanish”?

• Different socialization: Latine workers have not fully been socialized into the neoliberal American way of behaving and thinking like many White and even Black Americans have

• Different society: many have come from a very different society that is vibrantly left-wing / populist at the grassroots or that has not typically internalized American atomism in the way that the mainstream has

Why did the workers end their association with the Central States Joint Board (CSJB) and affiliate with the UE (Union for Everyone)?

• Dismal contract leading to strike: the CSJB was conservative, undemocratic, and highly corrupt, and they negotiated a poor contract with Republic which led to a wildcat strike — that strike failed, but workers remained determined to replace their union

• Meeting with UE: the workers met with UE organizers who convinced them that their union was more effective than the CSJB

• Organizing drive after expiration of contract: shortly before the CJSB contract expired, the UE launched its organizing drive, its success fueled by a “militant minority” among the workers (hard workers such as the maintenance worker Armando Robles)

What was special about UE?

• Decentralization and democracy: the UE was a much less centralized and bureaucratic union, with radical democracy enshrined into its structure. Union members both elected people from among their ranks into high positions, and also decided when to strike and when to finish a strike

• Equal pay, anti-discrimination, civil rights: UE promoted “equal pay for equal work” during WWII, fought to end racial discrimination in the workplace, opposed the Vietnam War, and was actively involved in the civil rights movement

What did the Republic-UE contract consist of?

• $3-an-hour raise: they received a rare raise over the course of three years

• Improved bonus system: improved the way that employers give their workers extra pay

• Increased # of union stewards from 5 to 19, giving the union more power to support workers and handle complaints

Why was factory equipment shipped away from Republic?

It was being shipped to a factory in Iowa that Richard Gillman planned to be the base of operations for a new, un-unionized company

What would the Republic plant’s closing entail?

• No severance, vacation, or health insurance: Workers wouldn’t get severance pay or accrued vacation pay, and their health insurance would end on December 15

• Violation of the WARN act: this violated the WARN act which required that employees be given either 60 days’ notice or 60 days of severance pay

Why did the union and workers craft this issue (the factory closing and the workers’ protest in front of Bank of America) as a bailout-related issue rather than a union issue?

Because taxpayer bailouts go to financial institutions that turn around and shut down factories; people are losing their jobs and aren’t being paid the money that they earned

What were the factors behind Republic and Union’s success?

• Unions and relationships: they succeeded because they had joined forces with a heavily militant and democratic union, and they built relationships with other important movements and coalitions

• Unions provide resources: unionization is key to providing organizational resources for workers

• Perfect timing: people were disgruntled with the corporate sector

Which nonprofit organization helped Republic workers form what would become the New Era Windows cooperative?

The Working World, an organization helping carry out cooperative projects — which would later provide assistance to what would become the New Era Windows cooperative