New Era Windows

Thu, 31/12/15

New Era Windows Cooperative

Located in: Chicago, U.S.A. | Produces: Energy-efficient windows

In 2008, Republic Windows and Doors went bankrupt and was shut down, leaving outstanding debts to the staff.  The workers protested through occupations and sit-ins, and a construction company took control of the factory. After the new owner decided to shut down the factory, the workers with the support of the community and funding from 'The Working World' decided to buy out the machinery and start a worker-owned democratically managed cooperative that produces energy-efficient windows. read more »

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Thu, 31/12/15

New Era Windows: Our Story

The struggle that led to the creation of the New Era Windows workers' cooperative, as told by the workers themselves.

In 2008, the boss decided to close our windows factory on Goose Island and fire everyone. In 2012, we decided to buy the factory for ourselves and fire the boss. We now own the plant together and run it democratically. This is our story. read more »

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Wed, 30/12/15

How Workers Laid Off from a Chicago Factory Took It Over Themselves

When their boss tried to fire them, the workers of Republic Windows and Doors occupied the factory. Now they own it as a cooperative.

Four years ago, as the recession took hold and layoffs around the country were approaching 500,000 a month, a group of workers in Chicago saved a factory and inspired a nation. Fired by their boss, they occupied instead of leaving. Fired by a second boss, they occupied and formed a worker’s cooperative. Now they are worker-owners of a load of equipment and they’re setting up a factory in a new location. read more »

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Wed, 29/05/13

 New Era Windows Opens for Business in Chicago

Tired of their lives in other people’s hands, window makers started a co-op.

Meet the takers: They took over their factory, they took on their bosses, they took the initiative to form a worker cooperative and today they’re taking the wraps off a brand-new worker-owned company: New Era Windows. It opened May 9 in Chicago. read more »

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Mon, 31/12/12

A New Era of Worker Ownership?

All over the country, people—like the workers of Chicago’s New Era Windows—are building worker-owned cooperatives that root jobs in the communities that need them.

The workers of the just-formed New Era Windows cooperative in read more »

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Thu, 31/12/09

Fire the Boss!

Naomi Klein & Avi Lewis on "The Worker Control Solution from Buenos Aires to Chicago"

Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein and Al Jazeera host Avi Lewis discuss the workers who are taking over their factories and plants rather than lose their jobs, some to owners who owe money to bailed-out banks. read more »

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