(Already know the story and want to skip to how you can help? Click here)

It’s the kind of story that we’ve been reading all too often in the news lately: a business finds its credit paralyzed by the ongoing credit crunch and, lacking operating capital, is forced to close its doors.

The difference is, this time the company’s workers are fighting back — and their struggle has caught the attention of the nation.

Republic Windows and Doors is a manufacturing firm in Chicago’s North Side that employs 250 people. Last week, it announced that it would have to shut down because a line of credit provided by Bank of America had been withdrawn, leaving the company without the cash on hand it needed to run its operations.

Management resigned itself to shutting the company’s doors. But the workers at Republic — who are members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America — felt differently.

Bank of America’s sudden decision to cut Republic off had resulted in the company shutting its doors without providing its workers the 60 days’ notice required by law. And the workers hadn’t been paid for their accrued vacation time, either.

How, they asked, could a bank that had accepted $25 billion in taxpayer bailout money — money that was supposed to get their credit flowing again — not even extend enough credit to Republic to meet its legal obligations to its workers?

It’s a good question, but the workers couldn’t get a good answer. So they occupied the Republic plant and refused to leave until someone came up with one:

Workers laid off Friday from Republic Windows and Doors, who for years assembled vinyl windows and sliding doors here, said they would not leave, even after company officials announced that the factory was closing.

Some of the plant’s 250 workers stayed all night, all weekend, in what they were calling an occupation of the factory. Their sharpest criticisms were aimed at their former bosses, who they said gave them only three days’ notice of the closing, and the company’s creditors. But their anger stretched broadly to the government’s costly corporate bailout plans, which, they argued, had forgotten about regular workers.

“They want the poor person to stay down,” said Silvia Mazon, 47, a mother of two who worked as an assembler here for 13 years and said she had never before been the sort to march in protests or make a fuss. “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere until we get what’s fair and what’s ours. They thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for Christmas, it doesn’t matter.”

It’s called a sit-down strike — and while it was most famously employed in the 1930s, the workers at Republic are demonstrating right now that it still has plenty of power in the 21st century.

Their fight for justice has already begun to make a difference. At a press conference this weekend, a reporter asked President-Elect Barack Obama what he thought of their cause, and he threw his support behind them unequivocally:

“When it comes to the situation here in Chicago with the workers who are asking for their benefits and payments they have earned, I think they are absolutely right,” Obama said.

“When you have a financial system that is shaky, credit contracts. Businesses large and small start cutting back on their plants and equipment and their work forces.

“So, number one, I think that these workers, if they have earned their benefits and their pay, then these companies need to follow through on those commitments. Number two, I think it is important for us to make sure that, moving forward, any economic plan we put in place helps businesses to meet payroll so we are not seeing these kinds of circumstances again.”

And today, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois announced that his state would suspend all business with Bank of America until such time as they extended enough credit to Republic for it to meet its obligations to its workers:

“How come it’s OK for some of these banks who have messed things up in a significant, substantial way that it’s trickled down to impact the lives of ordinary, average Illinoisans and ordinary, average Americans who every day work?” Blagojevich said.

“Somehow, these workers always end up on the bottom. It’s wrong,” he said. “And if the taxpayers who do all the work in our country have already been asked to bail out these big banks, then we expect those big banks to bail out businesses like this … to keep these workers working.”

Why is all of this important? In a larger sense, the workers at Republic aren’t just fighting for the benefits they’re owed. They’re fighting for all of us — for the principle that the economic bailout should help Main Street as much as it helps Wall Street. They’re fighting to ensure that the banks that get bailed out use the money for what it was intended for — getting credit, and business, moving again — rather than simply hoarding it, or handing it out in bonuses to already-overpaid executives at the top.

That’s why their fight is important. And that’s why you should help out.

How to help the workers at Republic Windows and Doors

1. Send a message of support to the sit-down strikers: the Republic workers’ union has set up an online form you can use to let them know that you support their struggle.

2. Send a message to Bank of America: Jobs with Justice has set up an online form you can use to write to Bank of America and urge them to pay the workers at Republic what they’re owed.

3. Contribute to the strike fund: the workers at Republic aren’t collecting paychecks, and they and their families still need to eat and keep a roof over their heads. You can help by making a secure online contribution to the strike fund via PayPal.

4. Tell a friend: Don’t underestimate the power of spreading the word. Every American needs to know about this fight. Reach out to your friends and ask them to stand with you in supporting the workers of Republic Windows and Doors.

UPDATE (December 9): Further developments.

UPDATE (Dec. 11): They won!