[4] Several months before the bankruptcy announcement, workers at the company's Goose Island warehouse had noticed that key pieces of equipment were being removed.
Despite company assurances that the missing machinery had merely been removed to make way for more modern equipment, the union began covertly monitoring the plant.
The company informed them that the employees would not be compensated for their accrued sick or vacation days and that their health insurance would be terminated on December 5.
[6] In total, the union claimed that the workers were owed US$1.5 million in vacation and severance pay, as well as an extension in their medical benefits.
[8][9][10] Beginning on the day of the closure, 200 of the 240 workers of the Goose Island factory began an organized sitdown strike to protest alleged violation of federal labor law by Republic in that the company did not give the workers 60 days notice prior to the announcement of closure (this, however, was allegedly based upon the lack of lending from Bank of America).
In September 2009, Cook County prosecutors charged that the sudden plant closing in December 2008 was part of a plot by CEO Richard Gillman, the head of Republic Windows.