Jury awards former workers at Lear's Arlington plant more than $280,000

Three women who say they were fired by Lear Corp. for filing workers' compensation claims have been awarded more than $280,000 in lost wages and damages by a Tarrant County district court jury.

The workers, who were terminated in October 2009, plan to petition Judge Donald Cosby for an order reinstating them to their jobs.

By a 10-2 verdict, the jury sided with the claims of Phyllis Carolina, Karen Rogers and Ronda Alexander, all of whom said they suffered serious injuries while working at Lear's Arlington plant.

Carolina was awarded $124,666, Alexander, $82,814, and Rogers, $80,000.
"It was a victory for workers in corporate America's war on the middle class," said Jason Smith, a Fort Worth lawyer who represented the women.

Lear, based in suburban Detroit, manufactures seats for the sport utility vehicles produced at General Motors' Arlington assembly plant. Lear spokesman Mel Stevens said he could not comment on "any litigation until it is resolved."

Lear has had a troubled relationship in recent years with workers at the Arlington plant, who are represented by United Auto Workers Local 129. After being shut down for 11 weeks in 2009 while GM was in bankruptcy, the company and union came to a standstill in contract negotiations and the company locked out the workers for several days until the GM plant manager intervened and a settlement was reached.

More recently, Lear has outsourced some work from Arlington to one of its Mexico plants and threatened to move even more work south of the border.

Lear executives, in testimony from depositions presented during the trial, said the Arlington plant had the highest workers' compensation cost of any of its U.S. plants.

"It's a very physical job," said Smith, adding that two of the women had injured their rotator cuffs and the other had injured her neck. "They have a lot of injuries out there. [Lear] could do things better ergonomically."

Maverick Gayden, shop chairman of the union that represents Lear's more than 500 manufacturing workers, called the verdict "very good news."

Gayden said the cost of the penalties could force Lear management to pay more attention to the working conditions and the state of labor relations with its employees at the plant.

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source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Cox, 11/5)