Monday, December 08, 2008

the et cetera of history


He was always concerned with what he called the ‘et cetera’ of history. The people left out.


Historian Howard Zinn speaking of Studs Terkel yesterday at a memorial in his honor at the Great Hall at Cooper Union in New York. The memorial was sponsored by the Nation and the Indypendent.

Yesterday in Chicago while Mr. Zinn spoke in New York, 250 workers occupied their factory, Republic Windows and Doors, on the North side of the city, just off Division -- the long divide that served as the landscape for Mr. Terkel’s first book, Division Street: America.

The factory shut its doors on Friday and laid off its entire workforce with only three days advance notice, rather than the 60 days mandated by Federal law. Workers have been denied the severance and vacation pay that they earned.

The workers have vowed not to leave until things are set right.

Company officials could not be reached for comment, and none were present on the site yesterday where, according to the New York Times, “30 workers sat in folding chairs on the factory floor. ... They came in shifts around the clock. They tidied things. They shoveled snow.”

Et cetera.

1 comment:

p2wy said...

Some of the workers were interviewed on Maddow tonight. They said local residents were bringing them hot food and cots and supplies and such.

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