Hart Marx Workers Vow to Occupy Plant

Workers at Hart Marx clothing factories voted in May to occupy their plants if the company’s lenders tried to shutter the 127-year-old company. Hart Marx declared bankruptcy in January and its primary lender, Wells Fargo—a recipient of $25 billion in the taxpayer bailout—was eager to liquidate the firm.

With nearly 4,000 jobs at stake nationwide, 600 workers at the Des Plaines, Illinois, plant voted unanimously for a sit-in. A few days later, 450 more workers in Rochester, New York, echoed the call.
They might not have to follow through: despite the bank's reluctance, a judge approved a bid from Emerisque, a British private equity firm that has pledged to keep U.S. plants open, honor labor contracts, and maintain the union label.
Hart Marx workers belong to Workers United, a Service Employees (SEIU) affiliate created from a split-off from UNITE HERE in March.
Workers United jumped on the campaign, holding vigils and rallies at the Des Plaines plant and garnering the support of the state's treasurer, who threatened to cut off business with Wells Fargo if it liquidated jobs. Workers followed the Wells Fargo chairman to Wisconsin, and when they were refused a meeting, joined with local SEIU members in a parking lot rally.
The union is drawing on last December’s victory at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago, where workers represented by the United Electrical Workers (UE) refused to leave their plant for six days. Bank of America was shamed into granting $1.75 million of its $25 billion bailout for workers’ severance payments. UE and Workers United are comparing notes and coordinating actions against Wells Fargo.
“The struggle at Republic really galvanized support among our members to vote for their own sit-in,” says WU staffer Joe Costigan. Hart Marx workers adopted UE’s iconic rally chant “Bankers get bailed out! Workers get sold out!”
Emerisque can buy the company on June 25, as long as no other company makes a higher bid. Workers remain vigilant, because a last-minute bidder could swoop in, only to scrap jobs and sell the plants for parts.
Such “vulture capitalists” might want to think twice.