BUSINESS

UAW workers rally outside Lear in Southfield

Michael Wayland
The Detroit News

Southfield — Hundreds of UAW workers rallied Thursday morning outside Lear Corp. headquarters in Southfield in support of non-unionized brethren as the auto supplier held its annual shareholders meeting.

The union workers — chanting "Lear, Lear shame on you. What's a worker supposed to do?" — were demonstrating in support of Lear workers in Alabama who are not represented by the union and claim their plants have unsafe working conditions and "poverty" wages.

"We need help and we need some changes down there for the workers," said Letasha Irby, a Lear employee from Selma, Ala., before heading into the annual shareholders meeting. "We just want our voice to be heard."

Lear spokesman Mel Stephens called the allegations "baseless" and "lies" meant as a political ploy.

"It's only recently, in the midst of a union organizing campaign, that there's been allegations that it's unsafe," he said, adding if workers want to organize the company would support it. "We respect the rights of all workers to decide whether or not they are represented by a union or not."

About 3,500 Lear U.S. hourly workers, including joint ventures, are represented by the UAW, according to the company.

The UAW has been attempting to organize plants in the South for years. Irby and fellow Alabama worker Alfonzia Richardson, an employee in Brookwood, said they approached the UAW for support because their requests were not being heard at their local plants.

The safety allegations come after workers says a former Lear Selma employee named Kim King was fired in March after voicing concern about a chemical used in car seat production that she believed was making workers sick.

"It's unacceptable when workers speak up, like Kim King, and Lear attacks them personally and goes after them on a restraining order," said UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada, who leads the union's independent parts and suppliers department.

A U.S. District Court judge, according to the company, has found that at no time has Lear Selma violated applicable regulations regarding exposure limits to the chemical TDI. The company also said Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials have been there several times over the last year.

"The allegations we heard today in the meeting aren't supported by the hard data," said Tom DiDonato, Lear senior vice president of human resources.

In an attempt to protect its reputation, Lear launched the website learselmafacts.com with safety test results and other information.

Lear last year did receive four citations from OSHA related to numerous inspections starting in May 2014, which company officials say have been taken care of. No violations were related to airborne concentrations of chemicals exceeding OSHA limits were cited, officials said.

Lear, Stephens said, offers "fair wages and benefits" for every market the company operates in. But the company does pay its component workers and assembly workers differently. Pay also varies based on region.

"We have to be competitive in every market area where we operate," he said.

In Alabama, the majority of workers in Selma, a component plant, make $12 an hour. In Brookwood, they make between $15-18 an hour based on seniority. Both are at least $2 less than comparable Lear workers in Michigan.

Estrada said all workers "should be able to go home at the end of the day and have their health when they make a company $17 billion in profits."

Lear's sales in 2014 were $17.7 billion, up 9 percent from the previous year, with net income of $672 million.

During the annual meeting Thursday, Lear executives announced a quarterly cash dividend of 25 cents per share. It's payable on June 24 to shareholders of record on or before June 5.

mwayland@detroitnews.com

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