Following the resolution of the Republic Windows dispute last month, we noted this warning to the business community from Chicago Chamber of Commerce President Jerry Roper:

“I’d be the first to say to companies that what you saw with workers at Republic will be repeated over and over across the country. ... [Businesses] need to heed these lessons from the Republic incident … or you’ll be in the newspapers, on TV, you’ll get a visit from the union and you could even get your name mentioned by the president-elect.”

Unfortunately, those lessons haven’t sunk in for some companies.

On December 13, in the days following the Republic workers’ successful sit-in here in Chicago, 200 health care workers at a hospital near Pittsburgh found themselves in an all-too-similar situation.

Without notice or even a final paycheck, they lost their jobs when the Commonwealth Medical Center in Aliquippa, PA declared bankruptcy and abruptly shut its doors. Encouraged by the progress made here in Illinois, the fired nurses, technicians and custodians rallied together to regain the thousands of dollars in back-pay owed to them.

Yesterday, a caravan of former Commonwealth workers brought their fight all the way to the Prairie State to let the hospital’s creditors know they aren’t going away quietly. The trip was planned after outrage built over the disturbing revelation that executives at the bankrupt hospital are continuing to collect paychecks from their financier, Chicago-based Bridge Finance Group.

“There are just some things that people will not stand for,” SEIU Healthcare Illinois spokesman James Muhammad told us just hours after the delegation took their case to Bridge Finance’s office in the Sears Tower. “They ought to be paid for the work they did.” (Full disclosure: the SEIU Illinois State Council sponsors this website.)

As in the Republic case, the hospital appears to have violated the WARN Act by failing to give 60 days notice of their plans to close.  And at their protest yesterday, the Commonwealth employees were joined in solidarity by some important allies: former Republic Windows workers.

On January 27, a bankruptcy judge is scheduled to address the workers' demands for their back-pay, according to Neal Bisno, president of SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania. Not all of the affected workers belong to the union, but SEIU is lending muscle on their behalf too. 

“This is another good example of what’s wrong with our country,” Bisno told us yesterday. “This greed among a few, leaving little for the workers, is what’s gotten us into this situation.”

Read more about the Commonwealth fight at Carl Davidson's blog Keep On Keepin' On.