Workers sitting-in at Republic Windows in Chicago won their demands for back-pay, vacation and severance late Wednesday night . The workers have left the building.

In the end, about $1.75 million was brokered to accommodate the workers' demand for 60 days severance wages, vacation pay and a two-month extension of health insurance.

Workers had argued they were owed the pay after Republic Windows shut down the Goose Island plant last Friday on only three days' notice, rather than the two months' notice required by federal law.

$1.35 million was extended by Bank of America as a loan to Republic management, and $400,000 was contributed by JP Morgan & Chase, Co., who own a 40 percent stake in the company. Workers will receive checks within a week representing two months' pay and unpaid vacation time -- about $6000 per worker, said U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), who moderated the negotiations. (Chicago Tribune)

Bank of America was brought to the bargaining table by a boycott threat from Illinois Gov. Rob Blagovisch one day before his corruption arrest. In a perfect confluence of the power elite, JP Morgan-Chase, a minority owner, came to the table represented by its regional president, the brother of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.

UE News report is here

What did the Republic Windows workers lose: their jobs and their health insurance. Yes, yes, the workers retain their COBRA-rights to buy their own insurance but who can afford to do that with no job?

John Nichols report of this victory in The Nation is here.

The jobs and insurance lost point up two urgent areas in which change is needed right away. First, We all need universal health insurance right now. Second, the stimulus package cannot come soon enough. In NYC for example, there is a vast need for windows and doors at NYC's Housing Authority. NYCHA has been starved for years by Mr. Bush, Mr. Pataki and Mr. Bloomberg. An economic stimulus package which adequately funds public housing authorities across the nation would produce a serious market for windows and doors.

When you meet your congress member at the holiday parties what do you think you should be asking them for>