Marvin Windows and Doors is a company that engages in racist hiring practices; pays poverty wages of $7.50 to 10.00 an hour to most of its employees and has reduced the wages of these poverty paid workers by over $800.00 a year this year while pushing workers to produce more for less pay. Most of the workers employed at Marvin Windows and Doors are so poor they are on some form of government assistance and their children even "qualify" for free and reduced price school lunches as the government subsidizes the wages with Food Stamps.
Every worker Marvin hires is scrutinized by a union busting detective agency before they are hired.
The Marvin's big boast is that they have hired violent thugs to thwart and stymie three union organizing drives by the Carpenters Union, the Teamsters and most recently the International Association of Machinists.
The Marvin Family runs the City of Warroad as a company town. A Marvin is the Mayor. The Marvin Family and their relatives own just about every business in town including the one bank and the one super-market and even most of the gas stations.
The Marvin Family contributes to both the Republicans and the Democrats including making huge campaign contributions to Minnesota's two most reactionary Democrats who would feel right at home in Mississippi--- U.S. Congressman Colin Peterson and State Senator LeRoy Stumpf.
Maybe Richard Trumka should consider one more organizing drive at Marvin Windows and Doors to find out just what kind of candidate the AFL-CIO is backing in Barack Obama.
What Obama doesn't say is that he heeded the advice of the Marvin Family in chucking the Employee Free Choice Act.
Why would Marvin Windows and Doors want to lay-off employees during tough economic times when they can force workers to produce more for less pay while the government subsidizes the living standards of its employees so Marvin Windows and Doors can drive its competition out of business selling shoddy products touted in their advertising as the best in the industry while boosting its profits making billionaires out of the Marvin Family in an area that is the most impoverished region in the Nation, second only to Appalachia? Oh, yes; Marvin built a brand new plant in the right-to-work state of Virginia because it could reduce its labor and resource costs even further.
By the way, here in Warroad, Minnesota, this is the only place in the United States that I know of where the Mayor tells the Chief of Police to take battered women to jail and the psych ward because, "We don't have a women's shelter."
The local casino owned by Red Lake Gaming Enterprises works hand-in-hand with the Marvin Family to keep wages down.The Mayor of Warroad determined that it was against the law to distribute union leaflets on any public sidewalk in Warroad because sidewalks are really privately owned and the owners are just kind enough to permit people to walk on the sidewalks provided they don't pass out union leaflets while walking on the sidewalks.
Marvin Windows and Doors--- welcome to Barack Obama's wonderful new world of a new kind of labor relations intended to create and enforce poverty.
Obama’s Tribute to a Company That Preserved Jobs
By ANDREW MARTIN
In President Obama’s populist speech in Kansas on Tuesday on rebuilding the middle class, he urged business leaders to realize that their obligations extended beyond the desires of their shareholders.
In citing an example of the type of ethos he envisioned, Mr. Obama citedMarvin Windows and Doors, a midsize, privately held manufacturing company based in Warroad, Minn. Hard hit by the decline in the construction trade, Marvin executives vowed not to lay off any of their workers or cut their health insurance benefits, a credo detailed in a Sept. 25 article in The New York Times. Instead, they cut back hours and pay, including their own, and eliminated some perks.
Mr. Obama quoted Marvin’s president, Susan Marvin, who told The Times, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood — and that’s the skills and experience your work force delivers.”
“That’s how America was built,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never been about survival of the fittest. It’s been about building a nation where we’re all better off.”
In Warroad, Marvin executives were thrilled with the shout-out from the president, even if they are reliable contributors to Republican campaigns, including John McCain, Mr. Obama’s Republican opponent in 2008.
“We’re honored that the president took notice of our longstanding efforts to strengthen our communities as we keep our work force intact,” said John Kirchner, a Marvin spokesman (and family member), in a prepared statement. “As a family-owned and operated company, our philosophy is simple: Do the right thing. If we stay focused on doing the right thing for our customers, our employees and our communities, then our business will be just fine. It’s been a tough few years, but by pulling together, we’ve survived — and we believe we’re poised to thrive.”