As if Chapter 11 restructuring wasn’t enough to cope with right now, interiors specialist Lear has had to fly in salaried workers to its Arlington, Texas, plant from around the country to maintain production at the seating plant there after it barred union workers from the factory on Friday.
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The company and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have been in heated contract talks at the plant, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The company said it sent workers home after a week of slow production that left Lear far short of the 180 seat sets per shift it was contractually obligated to provide to General Motors for sport utility vehicles assembled seven miles away.
A union official told the WSJ the slowdown was the result of new robots at the factory that malfunctioned, health and safety issues and parts and materials shortages. Workers were protesting outside the plant on Monday, alleging they had been locked out.
Lear said the union workers were “disrupting” production and that its salaried employees had been able to return production to normal levels. The company was working to build SUV seats as GM’s Arlington truck plant ramps up production this week after being shut down while GM was in bankruptcy.
The WSJ noted that Lear, now in the midst of Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganisation, was trying to get the UAW to cut its total hourly wage and benefit rate to US$35 from $43. The two sides reached an impasse in June when workers rejected the cuts.
Lou Salvatore, who runs Lear’s seating group, called the cuts “very, very fair.” The UAW chairman at the plant, Maverick Gayden, said Lear was asking for “extreme” concessions.
A GM spokesman told the Journal the company didn’t anticipate any production interruptions as a result of the dispute.
