ANN ARBOR, MI — Former workers of a Michigan electrical contracting business and dozens of their supporters demonstrated near a downtown Ann Arbor construction site Thursday, Jan. 27, protesting what they described as “obscenely racist” treatment of workers on job sites.
Carrying signs with messages such as “No more racist contractors!” and “Justice for United Six,” they spoke out about racism and discrimination they said they experienced and witnessed while working for United Electrical Contractors between 2015 and 2021.
Six former employees of the company have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging they and other workers of color were routinely subjected to racist names like the N-word and “wetback” and comments like “Hurry up before I pull out my whip” and “Go back to your plantation.”
They also were given severe disparate treatment, training opportunities and compensation in relation to white workers, they allege.
United Electrical, which has offices in Livonia and Lansing, released a statement calling the allegations unfounded and part of an ongoing harassment campaign by a union — the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — designed to interfere with the company’s operations.
“These claims had never previously been brought forward to anyone at our company,” President Scott Flegler said. “We take any claims of discrimination extremely seriously and have a track record of doing so. When these same plaintiffs filed allegations against us with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year, we conducted a thorough, independent review, revealing nothing to substantiate those claims. And it is our understanding that the EEOC has now declined to take action on those claims.”
United Electrical is proud of its diverse and talented workforce and diversity is one of the company’s core values and employees go through diversity training, Flegler said.
“We appreciate the ongoing support of our customers, who trust the quality and reliability of our team, while respecting the values of our company,” he said.
Protesters gathered Thursday across from The Standard, a 10-story high-rise being built in downtown Ann Arbor by Georgia-based Landmark Properties. They allege Landmark has hired United Electrical and refused to take any action since being notified weeks ago of the “extreme racism” the former workers previously experienced working for the contractor.
Landmark, which broke ground on the high-rise project in late 2020, did not respond to a request for comment.
City Council Member Jen Eyer, D-4th Ward, a public relations professional and daughter of an IBEW electrician, has been helping the former United Electrical workers share their stories, which she called “straight out of the Jim Crow South.”
Eyer, who acknowledged she is doing paid communications work on the issue for IBEW, attended Thursday’s protest and said she also shares concerns she’s heard from the former workers about lack of job training.
“As a council member, that concerns me greatly,” she said. “They have people doing electrical work who have absolutely no electrical training.”
Flegler called that allegation “patently absurd.” In addition to on-the-job training by licensed journeyman electricians, all apprentice electricians are registered with the state and participate in approved training courses, he said.
“In fact, we have built a classroom in our facility for them to receive their training through Michigan State University at our cost and we employ certified instructors that provide additional in-person and hands-on training and assistance to them above and beyond that which is offered through the courses,” he said. “We also have a robust safety program and employ a full-time safety director. "
Members of the “United Six” include four Black former employees — Eric Burch, Vance Murray, Marius Richardson and Tyler Richardson — and Gabriel Tavera, who is Mexican American, and Jordan Shank, who is white.
In speeches during Thursday’s protest and in written testimonies, they discussed racism and discrimination they said they experienced on other job sites in Michigan. Some said they were terminated after complaining about it to bosses.
Tyler Richardson said he worked as an apprentice electrician for United Electrical in 2020 and heard white employees make many racist comments toward him and other employees of color, as well as comments like “Black Lives Matter is bullshit,” and management just laughed it off.
Burch said he worked as an apprentice electrician for United Electrical in 2020 and also heard a lot of racial slurs directed toward him and other Black people. A foreman inquired about his race and asked if he was “Arab, Muslim or a towel head” and told him to go back to his “plantation,” he said.
Burch said he asked the foreman to stop making racist comments and the foreman threatened to have him removed from the job, saying, “I don’t like your kind.” Burch said he complained to a project manager who did nothing and a week later Burch was transferred to a less-desirable job site.
Burch said he was eventually told he was being let go because of “lack of work,” but he alleges white employees with less seniority were not laid off while Black employees were.
Tavera said he worked as an apprentice electrician for United Electrical in 2020 and heard white employees and managers use the N-word regularly. White employees also harassed him by calling him “brown boy” and telling him to go back to Mexico despite the fact that he was born in the U.S., he said, alleging they called him names like “beaner” and “wetback” and asked him if jumping down from a ladder reminded him of when he “jumped the border wall.”
It went beyond language, Tavera said.
“Workers of color like me were not given the same opportunities for training and advancement as our white coworkers,” he said in his written testimony.
Shank said he worked at United Electrical from 2019 to 2020 and also witnessed white employees getting preferential treatment and higher-paying jobs, and he heard foremen using the N-word. After complaining, he was forced to dig trenches by hand and eventually terminated, he said.
Murray said he worked for United Electrical between 2015 and 2021 and was consistently treated worse than white employees and he witnessed Black employees being given more physically demanding work and tasks they weren’t trained to do, then disciplined for mistakes on those tasks.
“Eventually, I was forced out because I could no longer work in a place with such rampant racism and harassment,” he said in his written testimony.
Marius Richardson said hearing white employees use the N-word on the job was so common it became “part of the air.” One white employee who said he was “raised to not like Black people” once told him to “hurry up” or he would “pull out his whip,” but management did nothing about it, he said. He never received promised performance reviews with opportunities for raises, though his white co-workers did, he said.
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