Billionaire Shahid Khan's company settles with Mexican workers after walkout halts production

DETROIT -- Workers at a Flex-N-Gate auto parts plant in Puebla, Mexico owned by billionaire industrialist and NFL owner Shahid Kahn won the right to free association inside their workplace after a 12-hour job action on June 20. 

UAW members at Flex-N-Gate plants in the U.S. took action to support the Mexican auto workers, hand-delivering a copy of worker demands, including the reinstatement of fired union activists, to their plant managers.

"Auto workers in Mexico have the same concerns we do, including safe working conditions, fair treatment, and a voice on the job" said Kathy Morgan, bargaining chair for UAW Local 2270 at Flex-N-Gate's Ventra Evart plant in Evart, Michigan. "If we don't speak up when Flex-N-Gate mistreats workers in Mexico, we're going to pay a price sooner or later. Because whatever they get away with there, they're going to try here."

"Right now I feel proud because we achieved something that we wanted, a victory for our rights and for justice," said Mario Lopez Espinoza, a member of the worker organizing committee at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Puebla.  "We fought for something and we won -- and I believe if we stand together with workers in the U.S., we can improve conditions for everybody."

A Flex-N-Gate facility in Urbana, Ill., was fined $57,000 earlier this month by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).  The citation included nine serious violations, including failure to monitor workers' exposure to nickel, chromium, hydrochloric and sulfuric acid, and other hazardous substances.

A closed chrome bumper facility in Highland Park, Mich., also owned by Flex-N-Gate, is currently under investigation by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) for possible leaks and spills of hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, into the soil and water surrounding the plant. The abandoned plant is located in one of the state's most economically challenged communities. 

The company's health and safety issues were the focus of a community protest in New York City during the NFL draft in April.

In Mexico, hundreds of workers walked off the job on Wednesday, June 20, at the Flex-N-Gate plant in Puebla, which supplies metal parts to GM, Ford, Nissan, Volkswagen and TXA facilities.

The dispute, widely covered in the Mexican news media, centers around workers' demands for a free and fair vote on union representation.  The Confederacion de Trabajadores de Mexico (CTM), an arm of Mexico's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), claims to represent workers at the Puebla Flex-N-Gate plant, but workers say they never voted for CTM and have never seen a copy of any contract. The organization, they say, collects dues without taking any action on issues such as hazardous dust inside the plant, low pay and excessive use of temporary workers.  The average Flex-N-Gate worker in Puebla earns about 1,200 pesos a week, or $100.  Ten workers were recently fired from the facility for complaining about the lack of genuine workplace representation.

The June 20 walkout ended after 12 hours with an agreement signed by workers, the company and the state government of Puebla.  It allows workers to meet inside the plant to organize a union of their own choosing.  The Puebla workers are still seeking transparent negotiations for a fair contract and reinstatement for fired union activists.

"This is a company with serious problems on both sides of the border," said UAW President Bob King. "We've got to work together, across borders, to raise standards for workers and communities. That's a better solution than letting corporations compete based on who can pay the least or operate with the most ineffective safety and environmental regulations."

"Firing workers who stand up for their workplace rights is completely unacceptable, in Mexico, the United States or anywhere else," said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who directs the union's Independents, Parts and Suppliers (IPS) Department.

"Shahid Khan continues to run his operations outside of ethical corporate practices, trampling the rights of the people who work for him and the communities where he does business."

Khan, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, bought the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars last year with proceeds from the fortune he has earned as operator of privately held Flex-N-Gate, one of the world's largest suppliers of bumpers and other auto parts.