masters move-on employees remain
Republic Windows & Doors will shut its doors Friday, causing about 300 workers to lose their jobs at the North Side manufacturer.
The company, which has been in business since 1965, told employees Wednesday that its main lender, Bank of America, had canceled its line of credit due to a severe downturn in business at the plant.
At the high point of the residential construction market, product sales to home builders totaled $30 million at the company. This year, those sales will total $6 million, said Amy Zimmerman, vice president of sales and marketing. Sales of replacement windows will total $38 million this year, down from $40 million.
"Banks are in the business to make money and at some point they have to make a business decision and that's what this is," Zimmerman said. "Certainly the new construction segment didn't help. If the bank saw some type of light at the end of the tunnel, maybe the bank would have extended a line of credit to Republic."
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers, which represents 260 workers at the factory, is protesting the closing, saying workers were not given the 60 days' notice of a mass layoff as required by federal law, and has been told workers will not receive their vacation pay. The union is directing its ire at Bank of America, not Republic.
A spokesman for Bank of America declined to comment.
Republic sold its massive 348,000-square-foot Goose Island plant to Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. in 2006 for $31 million.
At the time, Republic had nearly 700 employees.
