Melvin 'Ricky' Maclin — labor activist who led sit-in, started factory co-op — dies at 61

Author: 
Chicago Sun-Times

Ricky Maclin suspected something strange was going on when machinery started disappearing from the factory where he made windows.

He and the other union workers at Republic Windows & Doors became private eyes. Doing after-hours surveillance on the loading dock, they spotted box after box of hardware being stacked on trucks. “He used to come home and tell me, ‘There’s something going on. They’re moving equipment. I think they’re getting ready to pull something on us,’ ” said his wife, Cynthia Maclin.

The 250 staffers learned they were about to be laid off abruptly, without severance or vacation time owed.

Mr. Maclin, 61, who died of cancer May 5, helped make the Goose Island factory the epicenter of the U.S. labor movement in December 2008.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries/7/71/597692/melvin-ricky-maclin-labor-activist-republic-windows-sit-in-factory-co-op-new-era-windows

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