Public Employee Press

The World of Work
By GREGORY N. HEIRES

Obama helps laid-off Chicago workers win sit-in

Three decades after President Ronald Reagan defined his relationship with unions by firing striking air traffic controllers, Barack Obama sent the country a message by supporting a sit-in by 240 members of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

In December, the workers illegally took over the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago for six days when management decided to shut down its plant without giving them notice or benefits.

“When it comes to the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” said Obama after workers occupied the factory. Tapping into a nationwide backlash against employer abuses, the workers succeeded in forcing the company to meet their demands for 60 days of severance pay, a two-month extension of their health coverage and outstanding vacation pay.

“Such a clear-cut statement of support and solidarity with workers was certainly unusual when we have not seen that from a president in recent years,” said Queens College labor historian Josh Freeman. “This was a very dramatic statement, a shift in sympathy from business toward workers engaging in bold action.”

Because of his support for a huge economic stimulus plan to help dig the country out of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Obama is already being compared with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose New Deal spending and support for unions put the country on the road to recovery.