If you are a banker and your greed and stupidity led you to beg the government for a bail-out, step right up. If you are a hard worker whose collar is blue, hit the road.
The haves are screwing the have-nots again, but now it's front-page news.
This time, the have-nots are having none of it.
The Best-Looking Man In Show Business Today passes this along from CBS News:
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has ordered all state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America to pressure the company to help workers who are staging a sit-in at a shuttered Chicago plant.
The move is leverage to convince the North Carolina-based bank to use some of its federal bailout money to resolve the situation at Republic Windows and Doors.
The company closed last week with just a few days' notice.
Blagojevich says banks got bailout money and should provide lines of credit to businesses that need it so workers can keep working.
The announcement came after Blagojevich met with the workers on Monday.
"We expect these banks to bail out these businesses," the governor said, reports CBS Station WBBM.
The state also will get a federal court injunction Tuesday to make sure federal law is followed so workers get benefits like severance and vacation pay.
The move is leverage to convince the North Carolina-based bank to use some of its federal bailout money to resolve the situation at Republic Windows and Doors.
The company closed last week with just a few days' notice.
Blagojevich says banks got bailout money and should provide lines of credit to businesses that need it so workers can keep working.
The announcement came after Blagojevich met with the workers on Monday.
"We expect these banks to bail out these businesses," the governor said, reports CBS Station WBBM.
The state also will get a federal court injunction Tuesday to make sure federal law is followed so workers get benefits like severance and vacation pay.
The employees were let go from their jobs last week with only three days' notice and no severance pay.
They claim this is a violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) which says employees must have 60 days' notice or severance pay in the event of a plant closing or mass layoff.
According to workers, the company can't pay them because their creditor, Bank of America, won't let them. The company told the union that Bank of America has canceled its financing.
The bank had said in a statement that it wasn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.
They claim this is a violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) which says employees must have 60 days' notice or severance pay in the event of a plant closing or mass layoff.
According to workers, the company can't pay them because their creditor, Bank of America, won't let them. The company told the union that Bank of America has canceled its financing.
The bank had said in a statement that it wasn't responsible for Republic's financial obligations to its employees.
The workers have consequently refused to leave until they receive their rightful benefits, and they are blocking the removal of any assets from the plant.
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said her office was investigating the company, which has not commented on the sit-in.
"The reason they're here is they've got nothing left to lose," organizer Leah Fried of United Electrical Workers told CBS' The Early Show. "They were told on Tuesday of last week they were out of a job on Friday and penniless on the street.
"People have been very strong, very united and they're not going anywhere until they win justice."
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said her office was investigating the company, which has not commented on the sit-in.
"The reason they're here is they've got nothing left to lose," organizer Leah Fried of United Electrical Workers told CBS' The Early Show. "They were told on Tuesday of last week they were out of a job on Friday and penniless on the street.
"People have been very strong, very united and they're not going anywhere until they win justice."
Bank of America (as Republic's creditor) now owns the company's assets. That, says Fried, makes them responsible. "These workers are owed their vacation pay and if this factory continues to stay closed, then they're owed 60 days' pay under the WARN Act."
Fried says Bank of America - which recently received $25 billion from the government financial firm bailout - should be held responsible. "I think we need to hold them accountable for what they do to our economy and whether or not they are investing in jobs, whether or not they're keeping people employed."
The announcement of the meeting Monday comes after a wave of publicity about the sit-in and support from the Rev. Jesse Jackson and President-elect Barack Obama, who said Sunday the company should honor its commitments to the workers.
"The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned, I think they're absolutely right and understand that what's happening to them is reflective of what's happening across this economy," Obama said.
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