Workers at plant in Chicago sit-in/protest

A group of upset workers (about 200 of them) are staging a sit in at their now shut-down factory after they were all abruptly laid-off and refused severence and vacation pay. The Company owners said they were forced to close the doors when profits dropped from 6.9 million annually to 2.9 million annually. These workers have come to symbolize the struggle that millions of laid off Americans are experiencing and even the president-elect Barack Obama has shown support for what they are trying to do. Company reps have rejected several opportunities to comment, and really only said that they have no control or money to meet the demands of the employees because their financing was cut off by Bank of America, who finances their business activities. If I have it right, each employee is asking for $3,500.00 and some benefits be paid to them. It's very unfortunate that so many employees be laid-off right before Christmas; most of the employees that worked at this plant made approximately $30,000 annually. This is another sad story to add to the gloom of 2008 in American history.