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Workers Strike Lear Seating Plant
Several hundred Lear Corp. workers walked off the job on Saturday in Hammond, Ind., to protest low wages, the Associated Press reports.
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Several hundred Lear Corp. workers walked off the job on Saturday in Hammond, Ind., to protest low wages, the Associated Press reports.
The plant, which employs nearly 800 workers, supplies seats for Taurus sedans and Explorer SUVs made at Ford Motor Co.'s Chicago Assembly Plant.
A United Auto Workers union official tells AP the strike underscores the union's determination to end the two-tier wage structure it agreed to when the company was emerging from bankruptcy. The scheme pays new Lear employees around $11 per hour compared with nearly $20 for established workers, according to the union.
The UAW says it agreed to dual pay levels at Lear and elsewhere to help the American auto industry recover. But it contends the system is inherently unfair, since it can result in two pay rates for the same job, and should be abolished now that profits have returned.
The union has indicated that abolishing two-tier wages will be a major goal of its contract talks with U.S. carmakers in 2015.
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