Just six days before Franklin Street Bakery employees vote in a union election, supporters will rally to boost the organizing drive by the largely immigrant workforce.

The rally will be held from 2 to 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6, outside the bakery at 1020 Franklin Ave. Although many of the bakery?s employees won?t be able to participate, they will be able to watch supporters through the building?s large windows, organizers said.

The National Labor Relations Board will conduct a union representation election at the bakery Feb. 12.

Over a period of just three weeks, a majority of the appx. 50 Franklin Street employees signed union cards authorizing the Bakery workers union, Local 22, to represent them.

Local 22 community liaison and organizer Octavio Ruiz said that the quick and quiet organizing drive likely was a surprise to the employer, who was first notified of the workers? action via certified letter Jan. 14. He said employer reprisals began the same day against the mostly Spanish-speaking workforce.

?The workers are scared,? Ruiz said. At least two pro-union workers lost their jobs during the card collection period, Ruiz said, and another was ?forced? to take vacation.

?It takes a lot of guts to be in a foreign country -- all the odds against you -- and take a stand,? Ruiz said. ?You?re risking everything.?

Organizers said Friday?s rally is intended to show the workers they are not alone in their struggle. Nationally, more than 24,000 workers are illegally fired, disciplined or otherwise discriminated against while trying to form unions, according to the organization Human Rights Watch.

Ruiz said issues in the organizing drive include low wages, few benefits, no clear channels for promotion, no guaranteed hours, and no established vacation policy. Conditions there, he said, illustrate the exploitation of immigrant workers.

Minneapolis Labor Review Editor Steve Share provided information for this article.