Mario Neria, a Republic Window and Doors employee for eight years, stands guard outside the factory on Monday, December 8, 2008.

With the strike over and the occupation of the Republic Window and Doors factory on Goose Island at an end, reporter Kari Lydersen extracts interviews she conducted with workers to consider the question of what motivated them, and what becomes of them now, as well as what their plight says about the effectiveness of the $700 billion, taxpayer funded bailout of Bank of America and other private financial institutions. This is the fourth installment in the Melville House “Live Book” project, Revolt on Goose Island ….

Chicago, December 12, 2008—Monday Dec. 8, was the first day of negotiations between the UE, Bank of America and Republic Windows and Doors management. While these parties met downtown, a large crowd of workers, members of other unions and supporters from the general public rallied in cold crisp air that later became a freezing rain. The feelings of hope and anxiety palpable on that evening were both essentially realized. The workers’ hope was born out in an historic victory — securing more than $2 million in funding from two banks — but the workers’ fears about having to find a new way to make a living were also realized.

Friends William Lane and Donte Watson thought they would spend their lives working 
at the company and retire from it. They had read and heard about lay-offs around the country but always felt their jobs were safe. After all, people will always need replacement windows. Watson, wearing a brown Sox ball cap and puffy coat with a furry collar, was shocked when they got the news Tuesday. He depends on his wages to support his six-year-old son.

“My son knew there was a problem when I wasn’t going to work in the morning,” said Watson, 30. “It was hard to tell him, I had to break it down for him in a way he could understand.”

Lane, 33,  said his daughter, 11, doesn’t understand what’s going on. “She is still asking
for money, and talking about Christmas,” he said. “I had to say there will be no Christmas.”

“We are truly shocked and scared,” he added. “With this economic crisis there is nowhere to turn. I have extensive bills, a car note that I can’t pay now, all the daily expenses. If they don’t do the right thing I don’t know what I’ll do.”

Kenneth Lewis, President and CEO of Bank of America

Watson is furious at company officials because he was proud of all the 
effort he had put into this job for eight years. He is also angry the company closed with
 orders still to fill because he didn’t want customers to be let down.

“People put their blood, sweat and tears into this company, it was our company too, not just the owners,” he said. “They knew this was coming and they didn’t say a word to us. They owed us more respect than that. We don’t want anything extra, we just want what we are owed.”

Dagoberto Cervantes, 41, said it will be a “bitter Christmas” if the negotiations failed. “It’s now or never,” he said in Spanish, grabbing the hood of his five-year-old son who was hopping precariously around on a small brick wall holding a picket sign. “Es muy feo” — “it’s very ugly” — said his son in a sweet little voice, presumably describing the whole situation.

Cervantes also has a 13-year-old daughter and is worried he won’t be able to get another job to support them if Republic remains closed. “We need money to pay the rent, to support our kids, all the things you need to survive,” he said. “With this economic crisis and unemployment, there are no other jobs.”

That’s also how Jose Ornelas felt. Ornelas, 47, an immigrant from Jalisco who has worked at the plant for 30 years, said his kids and wife are proud of him for taking part in the sit-in. Though when his daughter first heard about the situation on the news, she thought her father had been kidnapped.

“It’s bad,” he said. “A lot of companies are laying off, I don’t know where we will get other work.” He has only worked at one other factory in the U.S. in his three decades here, and that was only for two months.

For most of the workers, this is their first time taking part in a major movement or protest. Ron Bender, a 55-year-old worker with 14 years at the plant, and a laid-back, nonchalant attitude despite the drama around him, hasn’t seen anything like this since the protests of the 1960s and ‘70s that defined his youth.

“I hope we get some justice here,” he said. “We have worldwide support, workers have been stepped on for so long, maybe this will set a precedent that corporate America can’t just take advantage of regular people. We’re hoping to inspire more regular people to stand up for their rights.”

Elisa Romo, 46, was nervous about speaking to a reporter but wanted to get word out. Wearing fragrant perfume and a warm, shy smile, she described how her son in the Army is proud of his mother taking part in this struggle. She is a single mother of four sons, though only one, age eight, still lives at home.

Protestors outside the Bank of America headquarters in Chicago.

“They all studied and went to college, so they’ll have a better life than me,” she said proudly of her older sons. Her eight-year-old spent two nights at the sit-in with her, telling press,  “I’m here to help my mom.” She said she is “fighting for him.”

“They give all this money to banks, but they won’t help the regular people,” added Romo, her shyness giving way to anger. We don’t want anything that isn’t ours, we just want what’s owed us.”

• Read Part One
• Read Part Two
• Read Part Three