Workers at the Detroit Chassis plant in Avon, Ohio, will be represented by the UAW after threatening to walk off their jobs.

Temporary workers at a minority-owned supplier plant in Ohio responsible for key parts used on Ford Motor Co.’s highly profitable heavy-duty pickup trucks won the right to unionize after threatening a strike.

Workers at Detroit Chassis planned to walk off their jobs at the Avon, Ohio, auto parts plant, but called off the strike after the company agreed to their demand to join the United Auto Workers.

The vote to join the union followed a march last week at the end of which the workers delivered a letter to Detroit Chassis’ management outlining their demand for union recognition. A walkout could have halted production within a day at Ford’s nearby Ohio Assembly Plant, where F-650 and F-750 trucks are built.

Since beginning operations last year about a mile from Ford’s Avon Lake plant, the Detroit Chassis plant has not hired any permanent workers, instead forcing 100% of its production line workers to remain in temporary positions paying as little as $9.50 an hour. In addition to low wages, workers struggle with inconsistent hours and do not get vacation days, paid holidays or sick leave, workers told UAW organizers.

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“Winning this union is a huge relief for us, and will help bring good jobs that are sorely needed in our community,” said David Perrier, 51, a production worker at Detroit Chassis.

“I’ve worked at the plant since day one, and I could see the only way we were going to get a decent paycheck and fair treatment on the job is by coming together in a union and demanding it. This victory proves that by speaking out, we can win real change.”

The organizing victory comes as workers at auto parts plants – which now employ three-fourths of all autoworkers in the country – are increasingly rejecting the low pay and unsafe conditions found throughout the industry by seeking union representation, the UAW said.

Ken Lortz, director of UAW Region 2B and a member of the UAW executive board, said companies use long-term “temporary” workers, employed through a staffing agency like they were at Detroit Chassis, as yet another tool to discourage workers from organizing for better jobs.

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“What happened here in Avon is the first time I remember seeing temporary workers stand up and say ‘enough is enough,'” Lortz said.

Union officials said jobs at the Detroit Chassis plant in Avon are a “microcosm of the broader trend” that unfolded across America’s manufacturing and auto industry during the past decade: One in four manufacturing jobs in the U.S. now pays less than $11.91 an hour.

Wages in the auto parts sector have fallen nine times faster than the rate for all other jobs during that same 10-year period, according to a recent report by the National Employment Law Project.

As wages have declined for manufacturing and autoworkers, temporary work has increased significantly in the industry. In the auto parts sector, about 14% of workers are now employed by staffing agencies.

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Perhaps more importantly, wages for these workers are substantially lower than for direct-hire parts workers: auto parts workers placed by staffing agencies make, on average, 29% less than those employed directly by auto parts manufacturers, according to estimates based on U.S. Census Bureau data, according to the research presented by the union.