December 11th, 2008 by Reed Allmand 
Workers laid off by the closure the Republic Doors and Windows plant in Illinois have been staging a sit-in since the company laid them off with only three days notice. The 200 unemployed workers said they were entitled to 60 days notice according to their union contract. After negotiations and plenty of bad publicity, Bank of America has offered to loan money to the now defunct Republic Doors and Windows so that they can pay the laid off workers severance and holiday pay. Republic Doors and Windows said that they wanted to give the workers more notice including pay; but Bank of America refused to allow them to spend any more money and abruptly cut off their line of credit. The loans still have not been finalized and the unemployed workers have refused to vacate the plant until the loans are officially approved.
Because of this tumultuous economy, we need to immediately put in place in Dallas-Fort Worth laws that will prevent this from happening here to unemployed workers. Three days notice is not enough for people to make plans for how they are going to pay their mortgage, utilities, buy food and care for their children. There needs to be some type of safeguard that will protect workers and our communities from this type of abrupt action by companies.
To read the original article click here.
About Reed Allmand
Allmand's vision is rooted in his own financially precarious childhood in Abilene "My father always had difficulty holding a job and supporting our family, so after my parents divorced when I was 12, my sister and I got jobs to help make ends meet," he recalls. "I remember what it felt like as a child to worry that our car would be repossessed or home foreclosed on."
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