Workers at the Morton, Illinois, location of G&D Integrated, an Illinois-based logistics company, were concerned about their safety. The workers fabricate parts for mining trucks, such as those from the Peoria-based Komatsu Mining Corporation, which sells industrial mining equipment.

Decks for such trucks can be roughly twenty-four by twelve feet in size, and workers use an overhead crane to roll the piece as they make flat welds. At the Morton facility, if a deck were to fall, workers worried that it would hit the welder at the table next to them, whose back would be turned to the deck.

“Workers went to management before they ever reached out to us,” says Vince DiDonato, the Iron Workers Union district representative organizing with the G&D workers. The workers proposed turning the weld tables 90 degrees, explaining that they had done the measurements and knew their plan would work, ensuring no welder would have their back to another individual who was rolling the pieces of equipment. “Management wouldn’t even entertain the idea,” says DiDonato.