George S. May Business Blog

B.O.A. concedes, Republic employees to be paid

“We have worked with the company’s management and other owners, including Chase Capitol Corporation to do the right thing for employees,” said David Rudis, Illinois president for Bank of America.

By “right thing”, Rudis is referring to extending a $1.35 million loan to Republic Doors and Windows enabling them to hand out the money workers claimed they were owed for severance packages and unused vacation time. Last week the company was denied the loan by Bank of America. Employees of Republic Doors and Windows were outraged at the response from the bank. Seeing as though B.O.A. had just received 25 billion dollars in bailout money (for situations exactly like this one) one could make a pretty good case on the employees behalf.

The reason for denial of the loan in the first place was that the company had lost some $10 million dollars in the past two years and according to B.O.A. had received the “maximum amount of funding” under terms of their agreement. Republic was deemed responsible for paying these employees under the WARN Act which requires companies to provide 60 days advance notice of closings or large layoffs.

Another point which I found quite interesting, is on the same day that Republic officially closed its doors for good, “Traco reported the sale of its residential window unit based in Red Oak, Iowa, to Echo Windows LLC”(windowanddoor.com). What is so interesting about that? Here’s a fact was seemed to be conveniently left out. Echo was formed by the family of Rich Gillman, who is also chairman, president ,CEO and part owner of Republic. Hmmm…

The former employees of Republic would like to informally wish Mr. Rich Gillman success in destroying Echo Windows LLC as well.

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