Employees of the Urbana Flex-N-Gate car parts plant owned by local billionaire and alumnus Shahid Khan are looking for support from co-workers in petitioning to join the United Auto Workers union.

“Workers have, for a long time now, wanted to improve working conditions at the plant,” said Chris Schwartz, research coordinator for the union. “For months and months, Flex-N-Gate has been reluctant to sit down and have a talk about a free and fair process for workers to form a union.”

The group will need to rally the support of at least 30 percent of workers to send a petition to the Illinois Labor Relations Board for unionization. To raise awareness, employees of the headquarter facility in Urbana stationed themselves outside the building’s gates Wednesday.

Similar events were staged at seven other Flex-N-Gate locations across the country Wednesday. Flex-N-Gate Corp. operates 20 facilities in the country, nine of which allow employees to join unions. Calls to the Urbana Flex-N-Gate were not returned.

Isaias Ortega, robot technician at the plant, was one of the workers holding signs and blowing whistles at drivers entering the gates, some of whom honked in solidarity. Ortega said he thinks the reason plant workers hadn’t looked to unionization earlier was fear of retribution.

“The thing is that these supervisors are scaring and intimidating our workers,” he said.

He cited an example of a co-worker who was told he couldn’t participate in the event the night before by a supervisor.

“They said ‘I don’t want to see you out there. If I see you out there, you’re going to get fired,’” Ortega said. “That isn’t something you can do.” 

Jerry Harcharik, president of UAW local 2488 in Bloomington, joined with University students, community members, UAW members and local Service Employees International Union members. He said plant employees have to work for low wages and under poor safety conditions.

“What these workers are forced to do, the conditions they’re asked to work under, the lack of pay, the lack of benefits — it’s unconscionable,” he said. “The guy who runs this place is worth $2.5 billion … he sits in his high rise, and he doesn’t care, doesn’t even care to negotiate with them.”

According to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration citation issued to Guardian West on Jan. 15, the plant was responsible for seven safety hazards classified as “serious” with proposed fines of up to $41,200. A serious violation is issued when there is a “substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.”

Flex-N-Gate is currently negotiating with the administration, according to an email from OSHA spokesperson Allen Scott. Schwartz said this recent citation is one of the main reasons employees at Guardian West should be allowed to join UAW.

“A union can both educate workers about the safety issues that they should be aware of and also provides them with protection and backing so that when they do speak up about problems in the plant, they can have a real voice and make improvements to the plant,” Schwartz said.

If the union gathers the 30 percent of workers’ support, a state board investigator would then decide whether the employer and employees would be willing to collectively bargain and consent to a board election for a final determination.

Austin can be reached at [email protected].