Chicago workers sit in!

This reminded me of the story about a factory in India that closed down due to executive greed and mismanagement. The workers took over the factory and beat the CEO to death.

And the stance taken by Bank of America is typical. Greedy swine. They advertised out here offering credit cards for those without social security numbers...i.e., illegal aliens.

If taxpayer money is used to bail out the banks, why can't the banks do the right thing and provide these people the money that is rightfully theirs?

The same thing happened to the Wise Maintenance Employee's Laid off last year.

quote:

Originally posted by WorkingStiff:
The same thing happened to the Wise Maintenance Employee's Laid off last year.

Not unless you participated in beating the CEO to death.

And getting caught.

Funny, what I meant to say was, the maintenance dept. was given the Warn Act because we didn't go to work for ABB. We also didn't have sixty days notice, not one of us has received vacation pay or anything else federal law says we should. Although your statement has crossed some minds I would think.

I was referring to the "bad American" comment...

Well I don't know anything about what is happening at Wise, but for those poor folks in Chicago it seems they have gotten the right folks' attention. The company thought they would "sneak out" and it got caught violating the law. Bank of America is guilty by association (in my opinion). I happen to agree that if you hold the financier responsible then you may be actually getting the rat out of the hole. I also believe the executives should be located and prosecuted if they violated any laws.

It is too bad nobody paid attention to the many other people who have fell victim to such scams to get around the WARN act. I know so many people in North Carolina that have lost everything to this type of greed. Nobody came to their rescue. Of course it was during the first term of George W. Bush so the government didn't care. Maybe this case will cause the banks to pay attention to who they get in cahoots with.

The employees are doing no harm. I sympathize with them. However, if there's no money, they can't be paid. Hope it works out for them.

You are correct that no money is left Howard. I seriously doubt the company as an organization or corporation has anything left on the books. I doubt the employees will get anything from them.

While I dislike things like the UAW demands for higher than reasonable pay, I also dislike dishonest executives and greedy companies. In this case I think the company knew it was failing long before it ran out of money. I actually believe the workers when they say the company was hauling out equipment weeks before they closed. I imagine they were selling equipment to keep things going and get the executives' final pay. At that point they should have told the workers the company is going under.

Bank of America knew it was happening too. While it wasn't Bank of America that was supposed to tell the workers it was Bank of America who held the financing. I think Bank of America will get left holding the bag because they took part in the bailout and here is one example where the financial bailout could "trickle down" to the workers.

I don't think anybody will force Bank of America to pay. But they will use the typical Federal Government technique of threatening to cut off funding if they don't help. It will also affect how the rest of the funding is viewed. As you know that is how the Federal Government manipulates the states in almost everything. But if Bank of America balks then these workers end up with nothing. Sad.

The employees got a raw deal, the absolutely got screwed by the company.

However, the factory is closed and owners are long gone. There isn't any money for the employees to get. So instead of sitting in and trying to get something from their old job, why not use that time to find a new job?

quote:

Originally posted by NashBama:
The employees got a raw deal, the absolutely got screwed by the company.

However, the factory is closed and owners are long gone. There isn't any money for the employees to get.

There's Foundry of the Shoals workers who STILL haven't seen what they were owed.

Things like this tend to forment revolution.

When you look upon your employees as disposable commodities, expect little loyalty in return. I recall an unpaid professional football player from the CFL some years ago backed a truck up to the training facility and loaded all the exercise equipment. The rest of the team was seriously irritated about it. Maybe because they didn't think of it first.

I worked for a company where the owner left the United States with most of the collateral for our line of credit. The two minority owners came to me and said they couldn't make payroll. I asked if they had enough money to pay the shop. They said they had enough to pay everyone except my assistant and me. I had a friend who worked for the Department of Labor. I asked his advice. He said that if the company went bankrupt I would be an unsecured creditor and likely to get nothing. He advised that I go down to the DOL and claim I was working and the company refused to pay. He said it would be defined as "slave labor" which has been outlawed in the United States. The company would not be able to sell any products made with slave labor. So if there is anything left in inventory then it would be held until everyone is paid. I don't know if that would work in this case. I did get my money and a new job.

Guess it worked. Bank of America has agreed to loan company enough to pay off workers.

Your tax dollars at work, spreading the wealth...

I like that a heck of a lot better than using bailout money to pay bonuses to CEOs.

Yep the workers actually got some of the bailout money for what the bailout money was supposed to go for instead of CEO bonuses and trips to the spa. Perhaps more workers will demand the same. It's the law to give at least 60 days notice/pay when closing or having mass layoffs. This company didn't obey the lay. They blamed it on Bank of America.

quote:

Originally posted by SHELDIVR:
Your tax dollars at work, spreading the wealth...

I am happy for the workers who got paid for the work they performed. It isn't exactly like they sat on their backside and did nothing to deserve the money. I would rather see some of the money go to the workers than executive parachutes. Although I highly suspect the executives never were hurting and they still get their cut.

As to spreading the wealth, notice we simply had to follow President Bush's bailout plan. Barrack Obama hasn't taken office yet.

I am pleased you are all so happy with this give away of our tax dollars. The point here is that this business is done, not coming back and it is not the tax payers responsibility to pay the workers what was owed by the defunct company. The bail out money was intended to make business viable again...I will say it again s l o w l y...THIS BUSINESS IS GONE, this is not a bail out, this is not an economic stimulus. Under law, this company was supposed to give these workers 60 days notice of closing or a severance. WE THE PEOPLE, i. e., tax payers, do not have this responsibility. Think about the implications of spreading this doctrine to every small manufacturer that decides to bail..WAKE UP, smell the coffee.