Philadelphia Weekly

According to a press release that I just received, Jobs with Justice and the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) will be protesting at the 1500 Market St Wells Fargo tomorrow at noon. The UE is upset that Wells Fargo, famed recipient of billions in federal Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP, or “banker bailout” as it is commonly known), is cutting off credit to the Quad City Die Casting factory in Moline, Il. This in spite of the fact that TARP is (and I know this strains credulity) supposed to be more than a corporate give away—the Administration’s argument was that an injection of liquidity would free up credit so that loans could be made to businesses and individuals in need like, say, the Quad City factory.

UE, the reader should remember, is the same militant, radical, hyper-democratic union whose workers last December took over Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors after Bank of America had cut off credit. The UE has long been a different sort of union: it left the CIO during the McCarthy years when it refused to sign “non-Communist affadavits” to aquisece the horrors of red scare paranoia.

What’s remarkable today is that the UE and the workers who lead it had an incredibly good sense of where public opinion was at, and occupied that Chicago factory at just the right moment. Illinois politicians, including then President-elect Obama, lined up to declare their support for the workers, who in less pro-worker moments of the American zeitgeist would have likely been arrested or worse. But Americans are angry at the banks and sympathetic to fights for economic justice, leading to, among other things, friendly media coverage. The workers won severence pay and the factory eventually reopened under new ownership.

This protest might be the prelude to another UE-led factory occupation, an important call to grassroots action at a time when President Obama seems unwilling to take some necessary next steps. Obama says that the government is now a “reluctant” owner of GM and Chrysler, even though we could exercise our majority shares to save tens of thousands of union jobs and make nice, sustainable cars, buses, trains, solar panels and all of that good, green stuff we need. Obama and the rest of the political elite need a kick in the butt, and these no-bullshit, progressive trade unionists wisely chose a factory occupation as a good place to start.

Press release after the jump.

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Demonstrators to Confront Wells Fargo/Wachovia Bank,

Calling it a Roadblock to Economic Recovery

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 22, 2009

The same union that occupied a Chicago windows factory in December for six days, drawing national media attention, is mounting a protest at a local branch of Wells Fargo bank Tuesday, in a dispute over credit, jobs and economic recovery.

Members of the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE) occupied Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors after banks cut off that company’s credit and forced it to close. Now UE members who work at a die casting factory in Moline, IL are fighting Wells Fargo, which cut off credit to their employer and will force it to close July 12.

Wells Fargo, one of the country’s largest banks, received $25 billion in the federal bank bailout. But by cutting off credit to a successful business, the union says, Wells Fargo is blocking economic recovery and increasing unemployment.

Members of unions and community organizations, including UE and Jobs with Justice, are expected to participate. Similar protests are planned at Wells Fargo locations across the country.

WHAT: Protest at Wachovia Bank.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 23 at noon.

WHERE: Wachovia, 1500 Market St., Philadelphia, PA

WHY: Wells Fargo is a Roadblock to Recovery. The bank took $25 billion in federal bailout funds, but unions allege that instead of helping the economic recovery, it is cutting off credit to businesses, forcing them to close, and increasing unemployment.