The ABC57 Investigates team spent almost a year going over stacks of IOSHA inspection reports and talking to several current and former employees at Elkhart-based Forest River. What we found paints a picture of a fast-paced work culture filled with alleged drug use and lax safety practices. All proving to be a dangerous combination.
This story by Drew Gardner originally appeared in ABC57 News.
One former employee did agree to speak on camera. ABC57 confirmed his employment through an old Forest River pay stub. He described the work environment inside the plant as fast-paced.
The company has a 3.2 rating out of 5 on indeed.com, a website that allows current and former employees to review their employers. Some call it a great place to work, while others say there are problems. One thing almost every worker agreed on was the fast pace. That pace inspired by the “piece rate” one former manager told us about. It means the more pieces completed the more you get paid.
“They try to enforce safety as much as possible, but of course there are slips within the system you would say,” the former worker told ABC57. Those slips eventually drawing the attention of the Indiana Department of Labor.
The company showing up in a 2017 Annual State Occupational report as a “significant case” due to “excessive injuries.”
Between September 2017 and November of 2018 ten of Forest River’s 26 plants in Elkhart County were hit with a total of 55 violations, 44 of them serious. The initial fines totaling $254,975. To compare, during that same time period only four other local RV companies were hit with safety violations.