National Nurses United

NewsBriefs:Dec 2 12/18/08 10:54 PM Page 7 Chicago RNs Support Sit-In Workers ILLINOIS hen 240 laid - off workers at Republic Windows and Doors in December barricaded themselves in their Chicago factory and refused to leave until the company paid them the two months of severance pay and accrued vacation pay they were legally owed, Dennis Kosuth, an emergency room RN at nearby Stroger Hospital, felt like the manufacturing workers were also standing up for people like him and the patients he sees every day. "They're fighting for all of us," Kosuth told the local channel of ABC News. "It's been too long we've been taking it on the chin as working people, and these people are standing up against corporate America and I think that deserves to be supported." Kosuth started a collection among his emergency department coworkers and stopped by the factory Dec. 7 to give AP PHOTO/GERALD HERBERT W DECEMBER 2008 the donation to the Republic workers. The workers' sit-in and modest demand to be paid what they had already earned captured the nation' attention at a time when the government is announcing that more than half a million people have newly filed for unemployment benefits, the country is sliding deeper into recession, yet taxpayers are still footing massive, billion-dollar bailouts for the insurance, mortgage, and financial sector. Use of a peaceful sit-in of the factory by Republic workers, who are part of the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, also evoked the successful actions by auto workers during the famous Flint, Mich. sit-down strikes of 1936 and 1937. The company had given the workers only three day's notice of termination, even though federal law requires companies of that size to give 60 day's notice or two months of severW W W. C A L N U R S E S . O R G ance. Company officials said they couldn't pay the workers because Bank of America cut off its line of credit, even though the bank just received billions in bailout funds to preserve credit for businesses like Republic. Ultimately, though, the whole layoff may have been a distraction from the real story: Republic officials had recently bought a similar plant in Iowa staffed with nonunion employees. The week-long occupation of the factory finally ended Dec. 11 after the workers and union representatives, the company, and company creditors reached a deal under which various banks would loan the company money to pay what it owed to the workers. "It was great to see workers stand up for themselves and refuse to let their rights be trampled," said Zenei Triunfo-Cortez, RN and a CNA/NNOC copresident. "That could be any of us." —staff report REGISTERED NURSE 7

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