Jul. 17--GRAND PRAIRIE -- Employees will go back to work building truck seats at the Lear Corp. plant in Arlington early Monday after enthusiastically ratifying a new three-year labor contract with the company.

The agreement ends protracted negotiations and a lockout that Lear management instituted last weekend after the members of United Auto Workers Local 129 refused to accept terms of the company's final contract offer.

It's a sign of the economic times that the contract that 97 percent of the workers approved Thursday calls for a three-year freeze in wages and cost-of-living adjustments and will require employees to pay a larger share of their healthcare costs.

But the company's previous proposal -- the one rejected by employees -- was far worse, calling for a five-year wage freeze for most workers, sharp pay cuts for some others, and substantially higher employee contributions to health insurance.

"We got a real good deal, especially in this time," said Kemba Wood, a nine-year veteran of the Arlington plant, where she makes seats for the sport utility vehicles that General Motors builds at its nearby Arlington plant.

Members of the union, which represents 627 employees at the Lear plant, responded to the lockout by picketing outside the plant en masse since Monday. Workers said their resolve and support for the union was increased by the lockout and the company's attempt to maintain production by bringing in temporary labor and nonunion Lear employees from out of state.

"It was worth everything. It brought us together," said Bobbi Montanez, a seat assembler and seven-year Lear employee.

When the tentative deal was announced to members on the picket line Thursday morning, there was a call for a prayer of thanks, said Maverick Gayden, shop chairman of Local 129. "People dropped to their knees, and there were tears in some eyes."

In a statement issued from Lear's Southfield, Mich., headquarters, a senior executive said the company was pleased with the Arlington agreement and another reached separately with the UAW representing a plant in Wentzville, Mo.

"The proposed contract terms are competitive and will allow Lear to continue supplying high-quality seating systems to General Motors from both locations for years to come," said Lou Salvatore, president of Lear's global seating operations.

Gayden said top regional officers of the UAW took a direct role in resolving the stalemate with Lear by working with their counterparts at corporate headquarters.

"They stepped up and put pressure on the company," Gayden said. He did not deny reports that GM officials also weighed in with Lear management and urged them to end the dispute and get seat production at the Arlington plant back to normal levels.

GM relaunched production at the Arlington plant this week following an eight-week shutdown. The plant is one of GM's best and is now the only one building the company's highly profitable large sport utility vehicles.

The prior contract expired in April, but the union and company agreed to continue to work under its terms. Lear recalled the laid-off workers last week to begin seat production in preparation for GM starting production this week, but they were told that they had to work under the terms of the company's last contract offer. When the union refused to accept those terms and asked for an extension of the old contract, the company initiated the lockout.

Bob Cox, 817-390-7723

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