When employees at Republic Windows staged their sit-in back in December, they put the business community on notice that workers won’t stand to be abused and exploited. From the factory floor, the Republic crew stood up for more than wages and benefits -- they demanded respect and walked away with their dignity.

This month, they’re taking the lessons they learned on a national tour to advance the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would pave the way for similar victories in the future. UE organizer Leah Fried explained to the Chi-Town Daily News that they want to get the word out that EFCA is a policy Americans can’t afford to ignore:

“If Republic’s workers hadn’t had a union, nothing would have happened,” says Leah Fried [...]

[L]aws like the EFCA are imperative at a time where corporations are cutting jobs and laying off thousands.

“We want to caution people that throwing money at corporate America is not going to help the economy right now,” says Fried.

According to Kari Lydersen, a Chicago-based Washington Post reporter who is working on a live book project about the Republic saga, the current economic climate could create the perfect storm for workers to assert themselves and make gains:

[T]he economic crisis has given people the sense they can no longer simply survive by laying low and not making waves. The status quo is no longer safe. As the workers realized when faced with the plant’s closing and denial of their wages, people have no choice but to take matters into their own hands.

The example set by the Republic workers has clearly resonated nationwide. Case in point: organizers at the first stop on the national tour had to turn folks away at the door of a Manhattan church after the crowd grew too large. It’s a sign that UE’s Mark Meinster is hopeful marks the “the beginning of a new movement.”

Image of the UE workers' event at NYC Community Forum courtesy of Flickr user ueunion.