FORT WORTH, Texas — The Nov. 1 election victory for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union at the Siemens plant here “was a landslide. An absolute landslide,” Joshua Worthey, business manager and financial secretary of IBEW Local 220, told the Militant.
The day before the vote, this Militant worker-correspondent and Josefina Otero joined about a dozen IBEW members holding posters saying, “Honk for the union” and handing out leaflets about the union election at the plant. There were loud honks and thumbs up from almost every car going in and out of the plant.
“Over 60% of the plant signed union cards before the vote,” said Jedon Shinpaugh, an IBEW chief shop steward. “We put QR codes on the union flyers so workers could sign up online. They were really quick to use them. There is a voluntary organizing committee of 20 that is majority women. The plant has over 300 workers.”
Gionni Gipson, a member of the organizing committee, stopped her car on the way into work. “I moved here from Michigan, many of my family were members of the United Auto Workers,” she said. “We need the union here.”
Siemens opened the Fort Worth plant last October. They make low voltage switchgear and switch boxes that are used in data centers, electrical vehicles and EV charging systems. The company claimed the average salary would be $63,000. But Worthey said, “The workers were promised wages that they were not given.” Assemblers make $17 to $21 an hour.
“There is still no HVAC and no bathrooms on the shop floor. The workers use porta-potties,” Worthey said. “There are a lot of safety issues inside the plant. The company refused to let OSHA inspectors inside. They have to get a court order.”