Detroit Webasto workers file for union election

Webasto Group facility in Fenton Township, Michigan. Photo by Jon King.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) said an “overwhelming majority” of the approximately 500 workers at the Webasto-Detroit plant have signed union authorization cards indicating their desire to form a union.

“We know we need a voice at Webasto,” said Trina Towns, a Webasto worker who works in the Final Assembly department at the Detroit facility. “Webasto might try to scare us, but we are ready to stand strong. It’s time for us to have fairness and equality in our plant.”

The filing came late Monday came just hours after a group of Webasto workers met with the lead lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to discuss their concerns about conditions at the plant, including mandatory overtime and a hostile work environment.

The workers said they chose to file for an election with the NLRB shortly after asking for Webasto to voluntarily recognize their union as they wanted to quickly proceed to a full vote if the request was denied, which the UAW said appeared to be the case.

“Rather than recognize the workers’ union, Webasto began holding captive audience meetings where anti-union consultants attempted to persuade workers against unionizing,” a release stated. “Workers shared that anti-union consultants passed out materials explicitly encouraging workers to “vote no” in a union election.”

A request for comment on the union filing was made to Webasto, but has yet to be returned.

If the NLRB accepts the filing and orders an election, it will be the second Michigan plant of the German-based auto parts maker to do so. In May, workers at the Webasto-Pilot Road plant in Plymouth ratified their first contract with a 96% approval margin, which included raises of up to 51% over three years, along with better benefits, and improved attendance policies.

Both plants make parts used in Ford Broncos manufactured at the Michigan Assembly Plant in nearby Wayne, whose workers are UAW members.

However, the UAW says the effort at the Webasto-Pilot Road plant was also defined by anti-union activity, as at least one employee expressed during Monday’s meeting with NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo.

Cat Blackburn, who works in quality gauging at the Plymouth plant, told Abruzzo that just days before their union election, Webasto management sent her to do an inventory at an off-site warehouse, something she had never been asked to do before.

“So, I wasn’t there to try to bring everybody together to try to educate them about what was going on for our election,” said Blackburn, who added that management brought in “union busters” to try and sway the election.

To that charge, Webasto previously disputed the UAW’s description of the consulting firm that was hired for the Plymouth facility, calling it instead “an objective third-party organization offering comprehensive labor education seminars to our colleagues and management to provide full and undisputed facts on their rights and the implications of union membership.”

But according to a mandatory expense form filed by Webasto with the U.S. Department of Labor, between Aug. 7, 2023, and Oct. 12, 2023, the company paid more than $300,000 to LRI Consulting Services, Inc., to “educate employees regarding exercising their rights to organize and collectively bargain.”

LRI’s website includes a page which states “Let’s win the union vote — and ensure you never face one again.” Another page provides information on how to “ Avoid a union ,” which states that “ unions feel like an ever-present risk. But you don’t have to live in apprehension that your organization is next. Feel confident with a fail-safe plan to prevent a union in place.”

The UAW also supplied the Advance with pictures of pamphlets they say were distributed at the Detroit facility explicitly encouraging workers to vote against a union election.

Stating “Shields Up Webasto!!” at the top, the pamphlet’s cover says in all caps:

“DON’T BELIEVE THE UNION’S PROPAGANDA!

ASK QUESTIONS

TELL THE UAW TO PUT THEIR PROMISES IN WRITING!

VOTE NO!!”

If the workers at the Webasto-Detroit facility are able to successfully join the UAW and secure a collective bargaining agreement, they will be only the second Webasto facility in the United States to do so, as the Plymouth plant was the first.

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