Local Commentaries
(2009-09-02)
Bill Knight
Wells Fargo bank in May refused to extend a credit line to Quad City Die Casting in Moline, causing the 60-year-old firm to cancel scheduled 2% wage increases, cut off health-care benefits and owed vacation pay, terminated a floating holiday, and plan to close. Quad City Die Casting management said all expenditures are controlled by Wells Fargo on a weekly basis.
Those forced moves in turn caused the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America labor union to gather petitions, muster support from public officials, protest and file an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board at the Peoria Regional office.
Wells Fargo, which has branches in Canton, Galesburg and throughout the area, received $25 billion in federal assistance through the Troubled-Asset Relief Program (TARP) launched during the waning days of the Bush administration.
The shutdown could cost the Quad Cities about $6 million in lost wages, jobs, commerce and taxes, according to a study by economist Bob Ginsburg of Chicago's Center for Work and Community Development.
Now, the national Jobs With Justice coalition is joining with the union to organize a "Roadblock to Recovery" campaign this month, the one-year anniversary of TARP.
Workers and supporters, including local clergy, have engaged in demonstrations and civil disobedience, once briefly blocking roads outside a Wells Fargo branch in Rock Island, where protestors chanted "Banks get bailed out, we get sold out" and were arrested, charged with $75 traffic citations.
Originally set to close in July, Quad City Die Casting is now scheduled to remain open and fill orders through early September, according to Carl Rosen, Western Region President of UE.
The UE made headlines last December when it organized a sit-down strike at Chicago's Republic Windows and Doors, which also faced a shutdown engineered by a bailed-out bank, Bank of America, which initially refused to pay the severance and earned vacation pay legally owed to the workers there. The UE won a $1.75 million settlement for Republic workers.
Also, Wells Fargo recently attempted similar financial shenanigans with the clothing manufacturer Hartmarx. After workers and elected officials threatened retaliation - among them, Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who said he'd cut off $8 billion of business the state does with Wells Fargo if they shuttered Hartmarx - Wells Fargo in late June OK'd the sale of Hartmarx to a London company that is keeping the apparel maker open, with 4,000 workers still employed.
U.S. Rep. Phil Hare (D-Rock Island), who for 13 years worked at a Quad Cities Hartmarx facility, also pressured Wells Fargo then, and he's doing it again.
In May, Hare asked Wells Fargo chairman Dick Kovacevich to [quote] "continue to extend credit to Quad City Die Casting as it continues to explore options to remain in operation. As our nation continues to suffer significant erosion of its manufacturing base, encouraging the stability and development of companies such as QC Die Casting is increasingly important. Finding a way to keep this company operating would preserve jobs, maintain the contributions of this business to the local economy as well as help pay off the debt owed to your bank's share holders. As a recipient of TARP financing during the recent banking crisis, I urge you to help use the financing you were provided to protect and preserve American companies and jobs."
At least four parties are interested in purchasing Quad City Die Casting, the union says.
Bill Visnic, a senior editor at Auto Observer, said, "These big banks got enormous bailouts for just showing up, and there are these ongoing concerns here that basically sort of need a hand -- they seem to be viable businesses -- and now these very institutions that themselves said they needed these huge fortunes to keep going are strangling these very entities that they're supposed to be helping."
The "Roadblock to Recovery" actions are set to start September 24, said union leaders, who said Wells Fargo and the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh will be two targets.
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