Laura Flanders

Wed, 30/12/15

How Workers Laid Off from a Chicago Factory Took It Over Themselves

When their boss tried to fire them, the workers of Republic Windows and Doors occupied the factory. Now they own it as a cooperative.

Four years ago, as the recession took hold and layoffs around the country were approaching 500,000 a month, a group of workers in Chicago saved a factory and inspired a nation. Fired by their boss, they occupied instead of leaving. Fired by a second boss, they occupied and formed a worker’s cooperative. Now they are worker-owners of a load of equipment and they’re setting up a factory in a new location. read more »

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Wed, 29/05/13

 New Era Windows Opens for Business in Chicago

Tired of their lives in other people’s hands, window makers started a co-op.

Meet the takers: They took over their factory, they took on their bosses, they took the initiative to form a worker cooperative and today they’re taking the wraps off a brand-new worker-owned company: New Era Windows. It opened May 9 in Chicago. read more »

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Tue, 19/02/13

Greek Workers Take Over Factory

An interview direct from Thessaloniki, Greece, where workers have gone into production at a building materials factory abandoned two years ago by its owners.

Tuesday February 12, was the first day of production under worker control at Viomichaniki Metalleutiki (Vio.Me), a building materials factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, which was abandoned by its bankrupt owners two years ago. Facing 30% unemployment and a dismal future for their community, workers in a series of mass assemblies decided to occupy the factory and operate it under direct democratic workers’ control.

As part of a letter being circulated by the Thessaloniki Solidarity Initiative explains:
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