Health care costs, wages push south Sacramento manufacturing plant to unionization vote
Hundreds of manufacturing workers will decide Thursday whether to unionize a south Sacramento plant that builds railcars for Amtrak and light rail systems.
Labor organizers said employees at the Siemens plant are underpaid, and at times work in hot, poorly ventilated spaces. Workers said their health insurance costs are not affordable.
A unionization vote was scheduled to take place throughout the day Thursday.
“I’d like to go to the doctor more, but I really don’t go because I just can’t afford it,” said Joseph De Pasquale, a quality assurance department employee who has worked at the plant for 12 years. “Medical is a big concern here.”
Sergio Vargas, a welder, said he canceled his employer-funded health insurance and switched to Covered California, the state’s marketplace program, because his employee plan was too expensive. Alan Scovill, who has worked at the plant for 10 years, at first as a welder and now as a weld inspector, said he hasn’t been to the doctor in three years. Though almost $500 comes out of his paychecks for health insurance each month to cover him and his family, he still can’t afford his copays.
The company said in a statement Wednesday that it pays competitive wages, offers best-in-class benefits and complies with Cal-OSHA requirements for heat illness prevention plans.
“We strongly believe that direct transparent communication with our employees results in a more collaborative work environment, benefiting our team members, our customers, and the communities we serve,” the statement said. “We do not believe that a union is necessary for our employees to thrive and grow.”
The 60-acre site on French Road is a key site for Munich-based Siemens. One in every three light rail vehicles in North America were built there, the company said. Today the plant employs 2,500 people, about 1,600 of them in manufacturing, building light rail vehicles, locomotives, passenger coaches and trainsets.
The company was selected to build trains for Brightline West, the high-speed rail project that plans to connect Las Vegas with the Los Angeles metro area, a spokesperson said, and has been shortlisted by California High-Speed Rail.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Federation of Labor Unions, said her organization began hearing from workers at the site about a year ago, often with complaints about wages. Some, she said, work two to three jobs to make ends meet.
The company said it exceeds the industry standard in California, and starting pay has risen more than 28% since 2021. The company said it has invested $212 million in the site and grown its workforce by 1,800 people, over the past 15 years.
Gonzalez said that beyond wages, workers also brought her concerns about heat safety. The labor federation said one incident prompted a Cal-OSHA investigation.
A Siemens spokesperson said she was not familiar with the case the labor federation mentioned, but that the company takes such allegations seriously and investigates them carefully.
Vargas, the welder, said he used to work in one of the buildings that wasn’t cooled. A native of Fresno, Vargas said he believed he was used to the heat. But he said on two occasions, he got dizzy and had to sit down.
If the vote passes, the workers would be organized under the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers Local 549 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245, in a group called Siemens Workers United.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
