[The workers of the just-formed New Era Windows cooperative in Chicago—the same workers who sat in and forced Serious Energy to back down on a hasty shutdown of their Goose Island plant a few months ago, and famously occupied the same factory for six days in December 2008—are doing more than putting together a bold plan for worker ownership. They are likely to move the entire subject into national attention, thereby spurring others to follow on. Though they have a powerful start, if the past is any guide they will need all the help they can get—financial as well as political...
They also have the backing of the United Electrical workers (UE), an independent and fiercely democratic union; and the support of the Working World, a nonprofit that has helped make hundreds of loans toArgentina’s thriving network of “recuperated” worker-owned businesses.
Above all, their own track record of bold and brave action to defend their jobs is promising in itself, and stirring in terms of public response: Many more people are rooting for this company than your average small manufacturing startup.
The workers are taking this very seriously—after all, it’s their livelihoods on the line. For the past few months, they have been engaged in intensive trainings in cooperative management, building the skills they’ll need to not just make windows but market their product and secure and fulfill contracts. They’ve been scraping together a thousand dollars each to buy into the newly formed cooperative. And they’ve been exploring city programs—like a Midway airport noise insulation project and a city-wide energy retrofit effort that could generate significant contracts.]
http://agonist.org/matttbastard/20120712/a_new_era_of_worker_ownership
http://www.theworkingworld.org/us/ex-republic-windows-and-doors/
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