Progress Illinois

In the days since the Republic Windows sit-in turned into a national story, the Illinois state treasurer, attorney general, governor, as well as numerous congressmen, aldermen, and county commissioners have expressed concern for the workers and begun to pressure Bank of America to alleviate the situation.  But as we noted yesterday, Mayor Richard Daley has been out of town and off the grid during this period.  Indeed, a search of Lexis and Google News finds no comment on the matter from Daley himself. 

So what gives?

I see two glaring reasons why the mayor may be keeping his distance from this story.  First, his cherished Tax Increment Financing (TIF) system led to Republic Windows receiving about $9.6 million in taxpayer funds to build its Chicago factory in the late-Nineties.  As the Reader's Ben Joravsky put it yesterday: "[T]he company gets a TIF handout from the city. And the bank gets a handout from the feds. And the workers get kicked in the teeth."  Now that the company and its creditors appear to be discarding their Goose Island facility -- not to mention the Republic workers themselves -- in order to start a new windows business in Iowa, Daley has some explaining to do.  Which may explain his silence.

Another reason he could be keeping quiet: Chase Capital, a subsidiary of JPMorgan Chase, bought a minority stake in the company in February 2007.  According to a statement from Republic, this equity infusion was valued at $11 million as of July 2008 (the exact stake is unknown, but is thought to be in the 40 percent range).  As such, they almost certainly had a central role in the decision to liquidate the company.  On the other hand, JPMorgan Chase took a $25 billion capital injection from taxpayers in mid-October.  In a conference call held days after they decided to take the bailout money, JPMorgan executives suggested they would primarily use the public funds to acquire other banks.  The New York Times' Joe Nocera reported that the execs didn't utter a "single word ... about making loans to help the American economy." 

JPMorgan has so far been overshadowed by Bank of America's involvement. But you can be sure we'll be hearing more about their ownership responsibility in the coming days.  And of course, the mayor's brother, William Daley, is the longstanding chair of JPMorgan's Midwest Region.

If and when the mayor does speak up about this issue, let's hope he faces some questions about these issues.