Richard Gillman's arrest took place several days ago and a bond hearing was held last week. I'm covering what may be to some old news. It might be worth repeating.
240 union workers at Republic Windows in Chicago were fired with little notice on Dec 5, 2008. The company publicly announced on December 3 that Bank of America was ending its line of credit, that the company was declaring bankruptcy and shutting its doors promptly and permanently. The company stated that employee health insurance benefits would be terminated on December 31 (employee insurance had, in fact, already lapsed) and that back pay owed would not be forthcoming. The company acted in clear violation of the WARN Act, a Federal law that requires companies to give workers 60 days' notice before mass layoffs.
More below the fold.
200 workers, represented by United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, peacefully took over the Goose Island physical location and staged a sit-in that got widespread media coverage and support from politicians and police. The sit-in was held in order that the workers would receive accrued vacation and sick pay and other benefits rightfully theirs under their contract.
Solidarity action outside Bank of America HQ, December 2008
Photo courtesy dorkula (Carrie Sloan), Flickr.com
Without that sit-in the now ex-CEO of the company, Richard Gillman, might not have been arrested for his part in months-long plot to loot the business and steal machinery in a criminal attempt to move to a new (non-union) location in Iowa. The workers occupying the building denied Mr. Gillman and others access to company offices for a time. Those offices contained very damaging documents, PowerPoint presentations, and flip charts detailing the scheme to rape the company and screw the workers. The publicity of the factory occupation brought Mr. Gillman's shady business practices to light.
Contrary to what you may have heard in the media, the sit-in was not entirely spontaneous. Workers had noticed and documented the ongoing disappearance of machinery. The union knew something was up. Local reps met with national representatives of the union and the UE met with Canadian autoworkers who had experience with occupying factories. Local 1110 President and Republic maintenance worker Armando Robles and UE union organizer Mark Meinster planned a strategy to occupy the factory in the event of a plant closing. Public records show that shortly before the closure of Republic Windows, Republic owners had purchased Echo Windows and Doors, a non-union window factory in Red Oak, Iowa.
Eventually BoA and JP Morgan Chase agreed to set up a fund to pay the workers what they were owed. The sit-in ended as it began--peacefully--on December 11.
The union filed suit against the company in January, citing violation of labor laws.
Kari Lyderson, journalist employed by the Washington Post, and author of Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover, and What It Says About the Economic Crisis appeared on Democracy Now, and said the following--
KARI LYDERSEN: He (Gillman) basically set up — him and also a number of associates set up a number of shell companies, different window and construction companies, that they were essentially laundering money through. And it turns out the charges describe how they actually hired a consultant in April (2008) that was helping them try to get out of this financial mess that Republic Windows and Doors were in.
And one of the things they explicitly were actually trying to do—this isn’t, you know, necessarily part of the criminal charges, but the charges mention that they were trying to break the union. The consultant talked about it being a militant and a maverick union that they wanted to get rid of. And that was part of the whole reason that they were moving the equipment, which they didn’t actually own, to this Iowa plant, literally under cover of night. That’s part of the robbery charges. There were also money laundering, mail fraud, fraud charges.
Prosecutors laid out the case in a 56 page filing. Gillman has been charged with 8 counts including felony theft, money laundering, fraud in insolvency greater than $500,000.
Richard Gillman is being held on $10 million bond.
Postscript:
The new operation in Red Oak, Iowa failed 1 1/2 months after it started and has left even more employees devastated.