Nezua blogs:
T’S A BIT INFURIATING to see the same old dynamics play out in the country, especially with a brand new set of circumstances. That is to say, the top dogs get away with murder and the little gals and guys take the blame and get the shaft. So it was with a Chicago factory and its workers until they decided to get all united about things and flip the script, 1930s solidarity style:
Chicago – Workers who got three days’ notice their factory was shutting its doors voted to occupy the building and say they won’t go home without assurances they’ll get severance and vacation pay they say they are owed.
The State of Illinois has supported the workers, and has suspended all business with Bank of America.
Also, Obama has come out in active support of the workers.
See
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/illinois-governer-suspend_n_149272.html
and
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/08/obama-encourages-worker-p_n_149184.html
Despite the tone of the commentary in Neuza’s blog this kind of thing is quite unusual. The payments that these workers are talking about are Federally mandated (and the State of Illinois actually mandates additional payments over and above the Federal requirements) and are routinely paid. There’s no way that this is going to stand. It’s a little unusual to do a sit in, but I fully support these workers in their actions.
OTOH, it’ll be interesting if the assertions that the company makes are true, which boil down to a) the company doesn’t have the money and b) can’t get their bank to loan it to them. Let’s presume (for the sake of argument only) that the company’s telling the truth; they’ve got no money and can’t get anyone to loan it to them. What then?
a) Force a bank that’s received bailout money to make the loan?
b) Go after the assets of the corporate officers?
c) Force the company into bankruptcy and reimburse the workers from the proceeds of sale of the assets? IIRC the workers are generally last on the list when that happens, not first on the list – but I could be wrong, if someone wants to correct me.
d) ????
Oh – and just to comment on what else is going on in Illinois:
Yesterday, Governor Blagoyevich was all over the news posing with a crowd of sign-waving workers in front of that factory pledging solidarity with those workers and letting everyone know what a great official he was for doing it. Today HIS ASS WAS HAULED OFF BY THE FBI TO JAIL FOR ATTEMPTING TO SELL OBAMA’S SENATE SEAT TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! YEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Please forgive the caps.
I’ve been waiting for this for a while. I wasn’t exaggerating when I talked about the kind of political environment that Mr. Obama comes from. This will be the second consecutive governor of Illinois (and the 4th since I’ve come to live here, I think) to be indicted for official corruption. The other 3 were convicted and served time. Given that 15 other people in the investigation of the Governor’s office and associates have been indicted (and every trial that’s ended so far has ended in a conviction) Blago’s a good bet to make it 4 for 4. And for the record, I’m just as glad to see Democrat Blago get hauled off as I was to see his Republican predecessor Ryan hauled off before him.
So now what gets interesting is – who’d he make the offer to? Is it on tape? And what was their answer ….?
Seeing as how the bank in question received the bailout money from the taxpayers through the government, I for one have no problem at all with option A – after all wasn’t that money intended to avert or cushion the economic meltdown? Laying off a whole bunch of people with no warning and no funds seems a good way to not cushion things.
I will point out, just for fun, that BofA didn’t need bailout money, didn’t WANT bailout money, and was pressured to take bailout money by Paulson so that no bank that DID need it would, essentially, look bad. Taking the money only diluted their shareholder value, and has hurt BofA. So then forcing them to give away that bailout money – that they didn’t need or want, since they actually practiced reasonable mortgage lending practices during the bubble – is kind of crappy. Lose lose for the responsible banks.
BTW – so far what’s been demonstrated has been how to do a takeover strike. They have yet to demonstrate whether it has any power. Of course, recent events have overshadowed it.