Workers At Ford Supplier Flex-N-Gate Join Unifor

September 23, 2024 9:36 am

Back in 2017, Ford supplier Flex-N-Gate – which produces a variety of plastics, metals, lighting, and mechanical assemblies for multiple automakers – broke ground on a massive new manufacturing facility in Detroit, which is one of many new structures that has helped breathe new life into Motor City. However, the supplier also owns and operates a plant in Beaverton, Ontario, Canada (around 60 miles north of Toronto), where workers just voted to join the Canadian union known as Unifor.

According to Automotive News Canada, workers at Flex-N-Gate Seeburn overwhelmingly voted to join Unifor, though the Ontario Labor Relations Board hasn’t yet certified those results. Regardless, those workers will join all three Detroit-based automakers in Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors as members of the union, along with around 100 other automotive parts suppliers across Canada. Flex-N-Gate’s Beaverton plant makes a variety of parts such as hood hinges, door checks, truck trailer hitches, and receiver sleeves for the Detroit Big Three and other automakers, including Toyota.

“We’re seeing more and more auto parts workers who want the benefits, resources, and protection unionization provides, this vote to form a union at Flex-N-Gate Seeburn is just the latest example,” Unifor President Lana Payne said in a release. The union noted that it will begin contract negotiations with Flex-N-Gate Seeburn later this year.

Ford itself reached a new master contract agreement with Unifor just over one year ago, though it ultimately shifted gears and will now build the Ford Super Duty at its Oakville Assembly plant in Canada rather than a pair of three-row all-electric crossovers as previously planned. Meanwhile, another Ford supplier – Webasto – is facing its own union issues with the United Auto Workers (UAW) in the U.S., as workers at the top-maker’s plant in Plymouth, Michigan voted to ratify their first contract back in May, but a failed attempt at organizing another nearby facility has spawned accusations of union busting.

By Brett Foote

Brett's lost track of all the Fords he's owned over the years and how much he's spent modifying them, but his current money pits include an S550 Mustang and 13th gen F-150.