[Peace] Toxic Employer - local FlexNGate workers speak out, Sat. Jan 28 at noon

[Ricky Baldwin]

Community support needed


This Saturday a group of workers is coming forward to describe hideous health & safety conditions at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Urbana (home base for a huge car parts
manufacturing operation that spans several states and a couple
countries). 

The local plant makes bumpers.  Workers there are sometimes knocked down/out by the bumpers on the line, splashed with painful acids and toxic chemicals they take home on their clothes, and are not given the proper safety equipment or information in a language they can understand.  Many of the workers are Congolese French speakers or Spanish speakers from Latin America.  There may also be toxic chemicals (such as chromium) leaking into the surrounding community, but we do not know that yet for sure.
According to OSHA, workers who breathe hexavalent chromium compounds at their jobs for
many years may be at increased risk of developing lung cancer.
Breathing high levels of hexavalent chromium can irritate or damage the
nose, throat, and lungs. Irritation or damage to the eyes and skin can
occur if hexavalent chromium contacts these organs in high
concentrations or for a prolonged period of time.  Direct eye contact with chromic acid or chromate dusts can cause permanent eye damage.  Prolonged skin contact can result in dermatitis and skin ulcers. Some workers develop an allergic sensitization to chromium.
Saturday's event is a big step for these workers, who have been trying to organize a union with UAW and have called OSHA several times to report health and safety violations at the plant.  As a result they have been facing reprisals by the employer, who is a very wealthy man.  The owner of Flex-N-gate (now Guardian West) is Shahid Khan, a graduate of UI and a major donor as well as contractor.  Khan owns the Urbana Country Club and Flight Star out at Willard airport in addition to recently purchasing the Jacksonville Jaguars.  

It takes courage for these workers to stand up to this wealthy and powerful man, who has subjected them to textbook union-busting tactics - captive audience meetings, etc.  It would really help bolster this campaign if these workers could see that this community supports them. 

Here's the time and place to be:

Saturday January 28, 2012   @   12pm
Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center 
1001 Killarney Street
Urbana, IL  61801 

If you can't make it there, the workers have a community support letter for individuals and organizations to sign onto in support.  If you'd like a copy, shoot us an email at Jobs With Justice (rbaldwin at seiu73.org or dlj725 at hughes.net).  

We're in this together, folks.

Ricky Baldwin
SEIU Local 73


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