Workers who once occupied the Republic Window and Door Factory in Goose Island in 2008 to fight to keep their jobs staged another sit-in in the same building last night, now owned by California based manufacturer Serious Energy. more ›

The wheels of justice are still turning at Republic Windows and Doors, it seems. According to the Chicago Tribune, an official from the company was arrested yesterday in connection with looting the business last year. more ›

Vice President Joe Biden visited Chicago on Monday to speak at the annual Richard J. Daley Urban Forum. He also took a tour of the soon-to-be-reopened Republic Windows and Doors factory on Goose Island. Republic was abruptly shut down last year, right before Christmas, and the workers, members of UE Local 1110 promptly occupied the plant and demanded the severance pay they were entitled to under law. Serious Materials then bought the plant and equipment earlier this year, promising to rehire the workers and start making windows again. more ›

The Chi-Town Daily News is reporting that monies from the Window of Opportunity Fund, which accepted public donations for displaced workers after the Republic Window plant abruptly closed late last year, may have been mishandled. Two former Republic workers filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the union, UE Local 1110, of failing to disclose how much money was raised. "We just wanted some transparency," Guadalupe Romero told the Daily News. She says that she and others repeatedly asked to see financial statements, and that the local used the funds to support a tour by a select group of workers, rather than to support unemployed workers. more ›

Paul Holland, the vice chairman and lead investor for Serious Materials, the California-based company that recently bought Chicago's shuttered Republic Windows and Doors plant, introduced President Barack Obama at a White House conference on green technology Wednesday. Serious Materials, which bought the shuttered Republic Windows and Doors plant on Goose Island, plans to re-open the plant later this spring. "Serious Materials is dedicated to reinventing the American building materials industry with a full commitment to green solutions, while reemploying today hundreds and tomorrow thousands of American workers," Holland said before introducing the President. more ›

Serious Materials, a California-based manufacturer of eco-friendly building materials, completed the purchase of the Republic Windows and Doors factory in bankruptcy court late last week, announcing that they would rehire all of the 250 workers that lost their jobs when the plant abruptly closed last December. The site, which was the center of a sit-in by the workers, who are members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110, is expected to begin operations again in a matter of months. more ›