For the second time in three years the workers at UE Local 1110 demonstrated what democracy looks like and defended their jobs from the soulless considerations of a corporate “person” who does not care if their children eat or go hungry. The principle foundation of democracy is an active and engaged citizenry; that has the capacity to control, create and prevent change and the workers at UE Local 1110 demonstrate what that means.

Typically when a corporation, the masters of the modern world, decide that they no longer need their workers, for whatever reason, they do as they will and workers are left to fend for themselves. No state or municipality or even federal government ever feels like they should protect a job, which one would think would be a priority for them but working people have been abandoned by politicians of all sorts. We live in a system that pays corporations to ship employment all over the globe, cannibalizes pensions and destroys wages and human security and decency. When there is no one coming to the rescue then you have to rescue yourself and that’s exactly what UE Local 1110 did.

Close to two hundred ordinary citizens physically took control of their place of work, just as they did in December of 2008 and demanded that the owners of the plant either deal with them fairly or use force to expel them. Since context is a dirty word in our media think about what just happened here and what did happen here three years ago. After taking over $10 million dollars in TIF funds and abatements and other tax breaks; the owners of a thriving business decided that they were done paying living wages to the people that made that profit possible. In both cases, without any kind of restitution to the public that has spent over a decade subsidizing those profits, the owners planned to not only move but to cast a few hundred workers into abject poverty and on to what remains of the public dole.

This is the typical fairytale ending of virtually every corporate story. The corporation comes and takes a great deal from the public and then leaves behind an economic hole in their host society’s fabric. A more parasitic and destructive relationship is hard to imagine and that it’s considered a normal arrangement speaks poorly of our society. The fact that not one public official raised a finger to stop Serious Energy or Republic Windows from making hundreds of Chicago families homeless in pursuit of more profit should not be lost on anyone.

So it’s comes to this… American workers must place their bodies and legal status at risk in order to maintain the opportunity to produce handsome profits for corporate entities. It’s come to the point where corporations are encouraged and applauded for impoverishing working families to make even more profit. It places me in mind of something the Rev. Martin Luther King said about injustice: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps perpetuate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.”

The workers of UE Local 1110 did not passively accept evil, did not perpetuate it or fail to protest it. They raised their voices and risked everything to have the opportunity to work for something. Congratulations my union brothers and sisters. Solidarity forever as you are Champions of the City.