What's the image anax used? Raise those fists like pistons?!!!!

http://cbs2chicago.com/linksnumbers/hartmarx.workers.sitin.2.1006811.html

Workers Approve Sit-In At Hartmarx Suit Factory
Wells Fargo Bank May Shut Suitmaker Down
Reporting
Susan Carlson
DES PLAINES, Ill. (CBS) ?

[Click to zoom.] Click to enlarge
Workers gather inside the Hartmarx suit factory in Des Plaines to vote on a sit-in, as creditor Wells Fargo Bank threatens to shut down the company.


Five hunded workers at the Hartmarx suit factory in northwest suburban Des Plaines have authorized a sit-in over the threat that the company's largest creditor may shut it down.

Employees want the largest creditor for the 130-year-old Chicago area company, Wells Fargo Bank, to help it reorganize instead of shutting it down. In the event that the factory closes or is liquidated, they will not leave.

As CBS 2's Susan Carlson reports, just months ago, the company formerly known as Hart, Schaffner & Marx, which has its factory at 1680 E. Touhy Ave. in Des Plaines, was best known for making the favorite suits of President Barack Obama. But that has changed.

Wells Fargo has received $25 billion in federal bailout money, and has the option of either selling the bankrupt Hartmarx to bidders or forcing the company to shut down. If that happened, the 600 workers at the factory would lose their jobs.

"We are all upset that, they should give us another chance to make sure that somebody comes in who actually wants to bid," said Workers United Local President Ruby Sims. "Take the bid. Let us work. We deserve to finish paying those bills, paying for our houses, taking care of our children."

"We will not leave the factories if they move and push to liquidate it and close down our jobs," said Midwest Workers United Treasurer Joe Costigan.

And there were reports Monday that Hartmarx may be split between men's and womenswear if it is sold to two buyers, according to a report in Women's Wear Daily magazine.

The scenario would have Hartmarx's women's brands, such as Monarchy and Exclusively Misook, being sold to New York-based Mistral, while the men's brands would be sold to Los Angeles-based Yucaipa, the report said.

None of the companies would comment.

Any deal would have to be approved by the bankruptcy court.

Hartmarx could be following in the footsteps of another Chicago-based company that staged a sit-in to get financing last December.

Employees at Republic Windows & Doors employees refused to leave the company, and it worked. The sit-in at the factory at 1150 N. North Branch St. on Goose Island sparked international attention, and the company Serious Materials announced in March that they were purchasing Republic, rehiring all the workers, and plan to reopen within the next few months.

Hartmarx is hoping to have a similar positive outcome to keep their 600 employees – and 1,000 across the state – collecting their paychecks.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias walked into the Hartmarx factory building to appear in support of the workers' cause.

"Unless the company remains open, [Wells Fargo] will not be doing business with the state of Illinois any longer," he said.

Chigago, city of big shoulders....naw, fuck that.

Place sure has reasserted it's pre-eminence, ya can't get away from it.

If it comes to a sit down a win would be very big. Interesting about the State Treasurer, how much clout does that threat have? If it happens it will be a real fight and nonlocal forces will be involved, they ain't gonna cave so easy this time, it's the principle of the thing.

Did you guys hear that a bank with a lot of farm loans out went under? Oh oh. Farming had been immune until now.

The only story out about it so far is really lame, but as soon as there is a decent article I will post it. Greely, Colorado, and there are all sorts of farmers there scrambling - dairy and ranchers is who the article mentions. It is way too big of a failure for the USDA or Farm Credit to take on at this point, supposedly. Not sure yet what the back story is.

A bidness perspective. Solidarity among labor and management, ho ho. Mebbe so, in this specific instance, but come on. Suits depending upon labor for their next check, ain't that always been the case? The big fish running from the bigger fish straight for the cover of the school of small fish.


They came from many countries to work at the Hart Schaffner & Marx plant. They shouted and jeered at the capitalist powers arrayed against them. They became a political sensation with national impact.

Sound familiar?

Perhaps so. But the events just described are not those that led some 600 workers to stage a boisterous rally Monday at the Hartmarx Corp. plant in suburban Des Plaines. Rather, they took place in 1910 at the famed suitmaker's West Side Chicago production plant. That strike led to the creation of the United Garment Workers union.

Life, and the union movement, have changed substantially since then.



At least three workers died in the Chicago garment strike a century ago. Fortunately, violence is virtually out of the question today.

In most other respects, the union movement is weaker than it was. Some 30,000 Hart Schaffner & Marx employees struck in 1910. Today, there are not that many textile workers left in all of Chicago.

The workers a century ago were fighting owners who unilaterally cut wages, ran an unsafe workplace and insisted on 70-hour workweeks with no overtime pay. Employers could count on uniformed police and hired goons to crack down on labor disturbances.

Today, the workers are fighting forces that seem all the more powerful because they are so hard to define. They are the powers of capital flows, of financial crisis and global change. Hartmarx is, after all, in bankruptcy.

A new owner that comes in may be tempted to shut the U.S. operations in five states and Canada and move production to China or another country where quality is nearly as good and costs run half as much.

This is not the fault of Hartmarx's U.S. workers, of course. But it will prove difficult for a costly, unionized workforce to become part of the solution to Hartmarx's problems.

Marina Franceschi, a 54-year veteran who emigrated from Puerto Rico, leaves her home at 3:30 a.m., riding two hours on buses and trains to her job pressing hand-sewn suits. "I pray. I pray that they're going to stay in business."

Of course one feels sympathy for Franceschi and her colleagues. They are rightly proud of their work, and their Chinese, Polish, Puerto Rican, Mexican, African-American and Italian origins speak to the enduring resonance of the American dream.

Quiquiang Huang, 39, and Yan Huang, 26, arrived from Guangzhou, China, just four years ago. They work for Sydney Branford, 64, a press room manager from Jamaica.

Speeches and rallies -- and the sit-in that might follow -- will not change the economics facing Hartmarx. What is important, though, is how politics and union pressure are coming into play.

Hartmarx workers learned from those at Republic Windows and Doors, who staged a sit-in last year after the company shut abruptly and refused to pay severance. Bank of America -- a recipient of federal bailout funds -- eventually made money available.

Now Hartmarx workers are leaning on Wells Fargo & Co. -- the bank providing the funding to keep Hartmarx in business -- to make certain the right buyer winds up with control of the company.

Yucaipa Cos. of Los Angeles and Emerisque from London have shown an interest in keeping Hartmarx in business. But Mistral Equity Partners of New York -- the bidder the workers are worried about -- has indicated it would do better by selling the company's brand names and shutting down its operations, say sources knowledgeable about the talks. Politicians have gotten involved too. Wells Fargo, another recipient of government money, can hardly ignore State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias' threat to take away $8 billion that the bank manages for the state.

Bob Bruno, an assistant professor of labor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said unions are taking advantage of the fact that the banks have taken government money and may need more of it in the future. "The banks are exposed," Bruno said. "The unions are smart enough to see where they can apply the pressure."

The recession is creating a strange new solidarity among management and labor. Among the 600 workers gathered in the cafeteria Monday at the production plant stood, here and there a few men in spiffy Hart Schaffner & Marx suits. As national leaders from the Service Employees International Union exhorted the workers to fight on, the men in suits applauded -- more than politely, I might add.

They were managers of the plant -- people whose jobs might be saved, too, if the right buyer gets the plant. In this labor fight, it's not blue collar versus the suits. It's everyone involved in making suits, scrambling desperately to save their jobs.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/chi-tue-greising-hartmarx-0512-may12,0,4053056.column

Quick note, looking for updates I saw all these headlines calling Hartmarx Obama's suit company, apparently its the suits he likes...hmmm

Hartmarx workers sit-in vote spreads to Rochester, NY
>Archive - Daily Online

Author: Pepe Lozano
People's Weekly World Newspaper, 05/14/09 13:49


In a powerful rising movement to save jobs, union workers are flexing their muscle these days nationwide by voting unanimously to sit-in at factories and not let bailed-out banks decide their fate.

More than 450 workers at Hickey-Freeman in Rochester, NY, voted unanimously May 13th, to stage a sit-in at their factory if the company’s main creditor Wells Fargo & Co. decides to liquidate the business. The vote comes one day after more than 600 workers at Hartmarx Corp. in Des Plaines, Ill. voted to sit in at their plant.

The company is in the process of being sold. Union leaders fear the new owners being sought by Wells Fargo will shut down the operation which has been operating since 1872.

The Rochester workers are joining with the workers at Hartmarx, Hickey-Freeman’s parent company. The Rochester Regional Joint Board of the Workers United Union, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union represent workers there.

Debbie Glinski has worked at Hickey-Freeman for 15 years.

“There are a lot of married couples that work here,” said Glinski in a press release. “If they lost their jobs, their families would be devastated. These banks received bail out money and that came from taxpayers like us. We helped them out and they need to help us out too.”

Fred Cotraccia is a 50-year veteran employee at the Rochester plant. “We want to work,” he said. “We’re willing to sit-in and do more if necessary to keep working.”

Joint Board manager Gary Bonadonna said, “These jobs are good jobs, and we’re hoping Wells Fargo doesn’t try to throw them away, but if it does, we’re prepared to do whatever it takes to secure the jobs here in Rochester.”

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) is also standing up for the workers. “Wells Fargo has received billions in direct government support to get them through the crisis,” he said. “Now they must help justify the taxpayers’ investment and give Hartmarx the time it needs to develop the best possible bids, and must select a bid for the company that will allow it to stay open and preserve 600-plus jobs in Rochester, scores more in Buffalo and 3,000 jobs across the country.”

Wells Fargo received $25 billion in federal bailout funds and generated record first-quarter profits.

Chicago-based Hartmarx, the largest menswear manufacturing company in the country, filed for bankruptcy protection in January after U.S. banks curtailed its lines of credit. It has become known for making suits worn by President Barack Obama. Obama wore one of the company’s tuxedos at his inauguration. The clothing maker employees 3,500 nationwide.

Workers at Hartmarx and Hickey-Freeman are borrowing a page from the playbook of workers at Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors factory. In that situation, Bank of America cut off credit to the company, leading to its closure last December.

The workers and their union fought back, staging a six-day occupation at the plant, which gained national and international attention including support from the Obama administration.

The workers eventually won a settlement with the bank, securing sick leave and vacation pay they were owed, and health benefits. Today, new owners have reopened the plant and all 260 former Republic workers are in the process of being re-hired, represented by their union.

As working families and their unions continue to be hit by company closings perpetuated by banks and other financial institutions, organized labor and rank-and-file workers are saying enough is enough, it’s time that they, and not the banks, get bailed out.


plozano@pww.org

Love to see the chain reaction, hope it really spreads.

Man, I'd hate to be a scab in Rochester, flattest A in the country! sounds more like skeeab, make one scream back over the line. (mine's nearly as bad...)

Schumer will help if it serves him well...

More from the Rochester site:

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
May 13, 2009
Hickey Freeman workers plan possible sit-in

Diana Louise Carter
Staff writer

Union members at Hickey Freeman voted Tuesday to stage a sit-in at the
fine menswear manufacturing plant if Wells Fargo & Co. moves to
liquidate the Rochester clothier's parent company, Hartmarx Corp. of
Chicago.

Hartmarx has been operating under bankruptcy court protection since
January. Wells Fargo, its major lender, says Hartmarx recently stopped
making payments it agreed to as part of its Chapter 11 case,
heightening concerns that the San Francisco bank will push for a sale
of Hartmarx to a buyer who would liquidate the company.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who has been talking to Hartmarx and
Wells Fargo for months, sent the bank a letter Tuesday urging it to
delay any action while offers from at least two potential bidders are
finalized.

"We're at a crucial time. There are bidders who would be willing, who
are preparing their final deals to take over Hickey Freeman," Schumer
said. The bidders, "as I understand, it would keep the concern going
as it is now."

The union, too, is placing its hopes on potential new owners who would
keep all of Hartmarx operating.

"There are a couple of viable bidders that want to keep the work in
the United States," said Gary Bonadonna Sr., manager of the Rochester
Regional Joint Board. He said the union favors offers from Emerisque
of London, and Yucaipa Cos. of California, both clothing manufacturers
that "we believe will keep the work right where it is and keep the
factories open."

Recent precedent

The threat of sit-ins at Hickey Freeman and the Hartmarx factory in
Chicago is more than a throwback to 1950s and '60s civil rights
protests. A six-day sit-in last December at a Chicago window-and-door
factory helped the plant stay open until it could be sold. Whether the
Hartmarx case goes that far may depend on the patience of Wells Fargo.
Although the bank said in a statement that it wants Hartmarx to
continue to operate, it also pointed out Hartmarx's failure to live up
to agreements made under the Chapter 11 reorganization effort. Wells
Fargo continued to lend Hartmarx money so it could mount a spring
collection, the bank said.

"As with any loan secured by collateral, if the borrower can't repay
the loan, the lender must ultimately look to the value of the
collateral for repayment," Wells Fargo said in its statement. "Despite
extensive marketing, Hartmarx has no offers that satisfy the bank
group's debt, but the bank group continues to work with Hartmarx to
find potential buyers."

3,000 jobs

Hartmarx CEO Homi B. Patel said the company is working with several
interested buyers, at least one of whom would liquidate the holdings.

"While our goal is to maximize proceeds from any sale for the benefit
of our creditors, we also wish to preserve our brands, including
Hickey Freeman and Hart Schaffner Marx, which we have been producing
for over 100 years, and also to preserve as many of the 3,000-plus
jobs as possible," Patel said.

Schumer said it would be a "tragedy" if Wells Fargo sought to
liquidate Hartmarx. Although the direction the bank is leaning isn't
clear, "I think they're on the edge," he said. "I want to make it
clear the direction they ought to be heading, as a senator in New York
who's on the Banking Committee."

He added: "Wells Fargo has received billions in direct government
support to get them through this (economic) crisis. Now they must help
justify the taxpayers' investment."

DCARTER@DemocratandChronicle.com

Additional Facts
What's at stake
The future of Hickey Freeman Co., which dates to 1899 and employs
about 600 at its factory at North Clinton Avenue and Avenue D.