In her final report for her ongoing Melville House “Live Book” project — now she’s off to finalize the book, which should appear in June — Kari Lydersen reports the story may have a shocking ending ….

Chicago, February 19, 2009 — The saga of the Republic Windows workers may be coming to a close next week; or perhaps a better description would be the close of one chapter and the beginning of another. Next week a bankruptcy judge is likely to rule on whether to approve the sale of the company to Serious Materials, a Bay Area, California-based green building components company, hence keeping the factory open and giving the workers their union jobs back.

The decision will be based largely on ongoing meetings between the judge and creditors, including Bank of America, the primary secured creditor; GE Capital Solutions, an equipment provider which is also a secured creditor; and other creditors secured or not including a vinyl supplier and the William Wrigley Jr. Co., now owned by Mars Inc., which owns the building. (Secured means there are physical assets backing up the money owed.) The last meeting was in mid-January. International union rep Mark Meinster said the creditors asked tough questions of Gillman and company officials, who he thought appeared “evasive and unprepared” and were unable to answer questions about whether they had permission to move equipment to Iowa. The next and possibly last hearing is Friday, Feb. 20.

“We’re still hoping the parties will be able to come together soon and we’ll be able to get people back to work in a matter of weeks,” said Meinster. “We’re still on track to be able to do that.”

The decision will come none to soon for the 200-some workers, most of whom are still out of work, and even the ones who have found jobs are making much less than they were at Republic Windows, where most had a decade or more of seniority.

“It’s a really tough job market,” said Meinster, noting that many of the workers are taking advantage of the downtime to go back to school or start vocational training programs. But ultimately almost all of them have voiced their desire to return to Republic Windows.

The union has been hashing out a labor contract with Serious Materials, whose CEO has said he hopes to quickly ratchet up the workforce (which will likely need to start small initially) to take back anyone who wants their job.

Though they can’t speculate specifically on the outcome of either the bankruptcy court decision or the contract negotiations, UE organizers and workers are feeling hopeful.

“It would be a huge victory,” said UE international representative Leah Fried of the potential sale.

Meanwhile on the 17-day road tour ending Feb. 16 workers spoke to crowds from New York City down to West Virginia and east to Detroit, including many who had recently lost their jobs or were fearful of losing them. Almost each stop drew a packed house, including about 300 in New York City on a frigid day and 450 in Detroit.

“We had a wonderful reception everywhere we went, we were trying to inspire more actions like at Republic, around not only workplaces closing but foreclosures, all the things people are facing in the economy,” said Meinster. “We met with workers in Rhode Island put out of work with no notice, we spent a long time talking with them about strategy and tactics. What we’re trying to do is inspire people because we really feel like we’re living in a time where bold action is possible and it’s up to folks in the movement to seize this moment.”

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