Workers Claim Victory After an Occupation with Serious Energy

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Dozens of workers emerged from the Serious Materials factory building at 1333 N. Hickory Avenue last night, chanting “Si se pudo!” to cheers from a wet but excited crowd of roughly thirty, many of whom had planned to spend the night in solidarity. Led by UE Local 1110 President Armando Robles, they exchanged hugs as Robles spoke into a camera. First in English, then in Spanish, he welcomed the result.

“We got a good resolution, better than we expected,” he said, and thanked those there for their support. The main portion of the settlement was an agreement that the workers could keep their jobs for 90 days while searching for new owners for the plant, and Robles’ suggestion that the workers could run the company under their own banner was met with applause. “Give us hope, give us work! For the workers of America!” cheered someone from the crowd.

 

A short, conciliatory statement from a Serious Materials spokesperson followed, but minds were clearly elsewhere, elated with the victory and the future prospect of a cooperative enterprise.

Robles, speaking to press in alternating English and Spanish, described events of the morning, when workers were taken to a notorious anti-union law firm and informed that their jobs would be terminated, effective immediately; though they would still receive 60 days of Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act pay, they would not be allowed to work any more. The company planned to begin dismantling the plant for sale, to which Robles and UE responded, “This is not acceptable.”

At the 5 p.m. shift change, workers stayed in the factory, and the rest is (newly written) history. In coming days, Robles said workers will get in touch with workers cooperative groups in New York and Argentina for guidance.

By the time the tents were packed and the workers on their ways, the rain had turned to ice and snow, leaving a pair of confused security guards cracking jokes outside the doors of a major labor victory.

 

By Dan Massoglia, February 24th, 2012, reposted from Occupy Chicago Tribune http://occupiedchicagotribune.org/?p=635#more-635

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Rod Blagojevich is not disgraced. The US law is disgraced. It was used to convict several  Democratic Illinois Governors. And one Republican Governor(the one  who removed the  death penalty)  Such a law may have been OK in Hitler’s Germany, or in Stalin’s Russia, but it is not OK in the US.
 
( I tried to email them, but it was not set up yet)
 
U.S. Department of Justice 
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 
Washington, DC 20530-0001 
 
Dear Sir:
 
             
The Illinois Government has had two of its last four governors put in jail by the justice department. Now you are trying to do it again. You seem to believe that Illinois is some kind of criminal organization. Illinois politicians make their living with half truths, and it would not be difficult  for them  to set up someone like Rod Blagojevich. They don‘t like him..
Rod Blagojevich is stubborn. He refused to increase the income tax even when he was shown that the state desperately needed the money. He did that several times before they impeached him. That is why they set him up, and also why they want to put him in jail.
This is par for the state of Illinois, but one thing is different, and that is the income tax.. It is unfair !! It taxes all the money the wage earner makes, but only taxes the interest on the money the rich have. (If a person had a million in the bank, he or she would only pay taxes on the interest, not on the principal.) This is wrong, but in 1913, it was the best the federal government could do. The rich controlled the news media, and they controlled the federal government. The best congress could do, was tax the wage earner. Also, many off the rich said they would take their money out of the country, if it was taxed.
                    A good government tax should include both, a property tax, and the total income tax for the year. To say property taxes  were already paid to the local government is true, and they would be deducted from the state tax., but the state would have a lot more money. If Illinois had this kind of tax structure, they would not be in  their present financial mess, and most people would pay less tax.
Also, in contacting some of the news media, I discovered they did not say anything about this governor’s opposition to increasing the income tax. I believe that is because the judge said that is not part of the case. This like sending firemen to jail for braking windows in a burning building. To say that his refusing to increase the income tax is not part of this case, is nuts.
 
Sincerely 
Robert W. Carlson
1220 Cypress Point Lane
Ventura, CA 93003 
 
 
 
                                    What happened in  Massachusetts?
 
       The democratic senatorial candidate in February 2010 lost, because of recorded
subliminal telephone messages sent to the independent voters, 10 days
before the election. These messages were insulting, and were untrue. 
      This is par for the course for those who want to destroy the United States of America.
Subliminal information has been used in advertising for over a 100
years, and distortions in politics, go back over 5000 years;
 
       However, the O J Simpson trial in 1995 was a new chapter in
the use of subliminal information. He was one of the most highly
praised individuals in America, and was the main spokesman for Hertz
Rent A Car. He was the perfect person for a  subliminal information
experiment. Also, they could sell stocks in Hertz Rent A Car while
they were still high. Then , after he was arrested, buy them back,
when they were much cheaper. 
      His ex wife was killed, and he was blamed for the murder.
Samples of his blood were found at the place of the murder, but it was
later shown, that he was NOT bleeding at the time of the murder.
Some TV stations covered the trial, and subliminal pictures of a black man with a knife, next to a screaming white women, may have been shown, along with the news.
       The jury found him NOT guilty in about ten minutes. But almost
all the people ,who watched the trial on TV,  believed he was guilty.
       The experiment was successful.
After the trial, the DA office was NOT questioned about the bogus blood samples,. In fact people who had watched  the trial on TV: Tried OJ again, and found him guilty.
 
      Then they selected George W. Bush. the governor of Texas, who won that office by using distortions and subliminal information, and telling the people in Texas, that the previous governor was a lesbian. 
Then they selected George W. Bush to run for president. (Ronald Ragan said he was retarded.)  
He did not quite win the first time. The votes in Florida had to be counted, but George H. Bush, George Ws father, who was a previous president, and previous head of the CIA, talked to the supreme for half an hour, and then suddenly, the court gave the election to Bush.
           While in that office, they unnecessarily allowed about 3000 people to
be killed in the twin towers in New York, unnecessarily  killed  about
4000 of our people in Iraq, unnecessarily killed about a half a million
civilians in Iraq, used torture to question prisoners(which is not
only disgusting, but also stupid.(getting prisoners to give you only
the answers you want, is like talking to yourself.)
 
       They almost destroyed our economy.