Hank Kalet

The big story out of Chicago, of course, is the arrest of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

A second story, however, may be just as important — the sit-in at the Republic Windows & Doors plant. The sit-in is a throwback to an earlier time of collective action and revolt, a time when workers banded together to stand up for their rights and to demand that they be treated with respect and dignity. And the workers at the plant know it.

Outraged and determined Chicago factory workers who were abruptly laid off this week have occupied their former workplace and say they won’t leave until they get the severance and vacation pay they say they’re owed.

The employees say they received three days notice their plant was closing. In the second day of a sit-in on the factory floor Saturday, about 250 union workers occupied the building in shifts while union leaders outside criticized a Wall Street bailout they say is leaving laborers behind.

About 50 workers sat on pallets and chairs inside the Republic Windows and Doors plant, supplied with donated food, sleeping bags and blankets. Leah Fried, an organizer with the United Electrical Workers, said the Chicago-based vinyl window manufacturer failed to give its 300 employees the 60 days’ notice required by law before shutting.

During the takeover, workers have been shoveling snow and cleaning the building, Fried said.

“We’re doing something we haven’t done since the 1930s, so we’re trying to make it work,” Fried said.

The action has the support of community activists and has drawn the attention of President-elect Barack Obama — who is a former community organizer in Chicago.

“I think that these workers, if they have earned these benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments,” Obama said at a news conference.

The sit-in, which began Friday when about 240 workers began “protesting the loss of what they said is vacation and severance pay they’ve earned and the lack of notice about the closing.” The workers could be excused for viewing their protest through a narrow prism, but it is clear from the news coverage that they understand the larger implications of their actions.

Many said Monday that they appreciated the encouragement and national attention, recognizing that their effort had tapped into concerns about job security in a declining economy.

“I’m not scared because I’m not alone on this,” said Raul Flores, 25, who had worked at Republic for eight years. “We’re strong and we’re going to stay. This gives us the strength to keep going. This is going to be for everyone.”

That’s no understatement. The job action — coming at a time when the nation’s financial house is in disarray, when the Big Three automakers are facing bankruptcy and more and more people are losing their jobs and the safety net is in tatters — has the potential to trigger a wider protest. “Republic workers didn’t wait for government action,” Peter Drieier notes on Huffington Post.

They refused to walk away from their jobs quietly or to accept the argument that the lay-offs were an inevitable result of the nation’s economic hard times. They peacefully took over the plant, where some of them had worked for decades, and demanded that the Bank of America and Republic management find a solution. The workers insist that they won’t leave until getting assurances they will receive severance and vacation pay, but they also hope to find a way to keep the plant open.

Although by occupying the factory they are breaking the law, no politician has called for the Chicago Police Department to arrest them — a sure sign that their action has become a symbol of working families’ distress in the unraveling Bush economy. Millions of Americans, watching interviews with the workers on TV during the past few days, can identify with their plight – the loss of their jobs, their health insurance and perhaps their homes – only a few weeks before Christmas.

The soon-to-be new president seems to understand this.

“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned,” Obama said during a press briefing on Sunday, ” I think they are absolutely right. What’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.”

With that statement, Obama used his bully pulpit to endorse the workers’ protest and to put pressure on the Bank of America and Republic to forge a solution. Representatives of the company, BofA, and the union have been meeting at the bank’s office in downtown Chicago. Congressman Luis Gutierrez has been moderating the talks.

The symbolism of the workers’ take-over also adds credence to Obama’s call for a major government-funded infrastructure program that will stimulate several million jobs — almost all of them in the private sector — and help jump-start the ailing economy.

The protest, as I said, is a throwback — and may be a glimpse into the future:

Its worth recalling that FDR did not campaign for president in 1932 — three years into the Great Depression — as a proponent of government activism or with a clear plan for economic recovery. But in the five months between his election victory and his March 1933 inauguration, Depression conditions had worsened, and grassroots worker and community protests escalated throughout the country. As soon as he took office, Roosevelt became more vocal, using his bully pulpit — in speeches and radio addresses — to promote New Deal ideas, pushing banking reform, public works, relief for struggling farmers, and help for homeowners within the first few months of his administration. In June 1933 he signed the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which for the first time recognized workers’ right to collective bargaining.

Immediately, union activists gave speeches and posted signs — on posters and billboards, and in store windows — proclaiming, “The President wants you to join the union.” Workers responded, and union membership began to climb. When the Supreme Court ruled in May 1935 that NIRA was unconstitutional, FDR and Congress immediately enacted the National Labor Relations Act, often called the Wagner Act, to preserve workers’ right to organize. Workers became even bolder in order to protect their jobs and defend their rights. Department store clerks, bakers, hospital laundry workers, longshoremen, meatpackers, steelworkers, tire and auto workers, and others engaged in various forms of protest, including the first wave of “sit-down” strikes demanding recognition of their unions. The combination of government intervention and union activism laid the foundation for the post-World War 2 prosperity that lifted the majority of Americans into the middle class.

That social contract has now been shredded, spurred by two decades of government deregulation of business, widening inequality, increasing job insecurity, and the unraveling of the social safety net, including health insurance. These trends have been compounded during the Bush years — corrupt crony capitalism, the mortgage meltdown, escalating foreclosures, and large-scale lay-offs.

The bold factory take-over by the Republic workers in Chicago may be a fluke, or it just could be the opening salvo of a new wave of grassroots activism, not only by workers and their unions, but also by community groups, enviros, religious congregations, housing crusaders, and the millions of Americans inspired by Obama’s campaign who voted for the first time in November. Clearly the Republic workers’ protest has struck a nerve with the American people, including many who don’t share their plight but can nevertheless empathize with their predicament.

It would be uplifting and useful to see vigils and rallies in cities around the country on behalf of another New Deal — a pump-priming infrastructure plan, a “green jobs” investment program, a universal health insurance proposal, a long-overdue reform of corporate-friendly labor laws, a strategy to help Americans afford housing, and a significant federal investment in public schools and college financial aid.

Like FDR, Obama can use his bully pulpit to encourage Americans to organize and raise their voices — as he did Sunday in support of the workers at Republic Windows and Doors, a month before he officially takes office. But if Americans want the country to change direction, as the election results indicated, they’ll have to follow Obama’s advice, and the Republic workers’ example: change happens from the bottom up.