Rocío Peréz was a member, activist and steward in Local 1110 at Republic Windows & Doors in Chicago and a leader in the plant occupation in December 2010. She is still a Local 1110 member and one of the worker/owners of New Era Windows. She was interviewed by UE International Rep. Leah Fried for Hispanic Heritage Month.

I was born in Jalisco, Mexico.  I came to the U.S. with my husband when I was 23 years old.  We first went to Texas, but I didn't like it because it was hard to find work. After three months it was too hard so we came to Chicago. In Chicago I had a bunch of different jobs. I worked in a soap factory, a Christmas card factory, and as a server in a restaurant before I started at Republic Windows and Doors.

Before working at the restaurant, I went back to Mexico for three years and tried to find work, but it was impossible. The maquila factories wouldn't hire me because all the companies – U.S., Japanese, European and Mexican – all of them refused to hire workers that were over 30 years old.  When I went to look for a job, they said we don't hire anyone over 30. So for three years I was dependent on my husband sending me money from his job in the U.S.  I couldn't live dependent on him like that and I wanted to raise my children and work in the U.S. so I came back to Chicago. I found work in a restaurant but I couldn't make enough money making the tipped minimum wage which was $2.13 an hour.

So I was glad when I found work at Republic Windows and Doors. At that time we had a corrupt union. I was disillusioned with unions and felt they all must be terrible and so when Leah (Fried, UE organizer) came and asked me to help bring in the UE, I said no. It was only after I saw in actions that UE was different, I knew not all unions were alike. I became a steward in 2005, a year after UE became our union, and was very active in fighting for good contracts, winning grievances and in 2008 organizing the occupation. That was a scary time because some people didn't have papers and we thought we might be deported if they arrested us for taking over the factory, but we were so angry at how Republic Windows treated us, we took that risk.  

Now I am still a UE member and an owner/worker at our window manufacturing cooperative New Era Windows. We are proud to be UE members and still fighting to take control of our lives in our adopted home.