Have a Seat
Two years ago when Bobby Smith joined the workforce at the Rawsonville, Mich., Visteon plant, he saw something that made him curious.
“We were doing a walk-through during our plant orientation and we said, ‘What’s with the chairs everywhere?’ ” he recalled. “You’re not allowed to sit down at some plants.”
Indeed, the UAW Local 898 member said he and his fellow workers at a nearby Ford Motor Co. plant used to commandeer five-gallon plastic buckets, turn them upside down and put foam rubber on top so they could sit and take the pressure off their legs and backs.
Obviously, the workers were trying to tell management that the job hurts. It doesn’t have to. Many jobs can be redesigned to allow workers the option of sitting while doing their work. And jobs that cannot be modified can be rotated so workers are not always on their feet.
Smith has the best of both worlds.
“The first part of the day, I usually stand. The second part, I usually sit,” Smith said as he grabbed wiper motors from a bin, inspected them and placed them on a conveyor. “You stand and work all day and your knees and back would be sore. It’s nice to be able to sit.”
Sitting produces much less strain on the body than does standing. The option to sit would not have been possible without the UAW demanding that management take a look at jobs that can be modified. At Rawsonville, as at many other UAW-represented worksites, there is a joint local ergonomics committee that meets once a week to see how jobs can be changed to eliminate stresses on workers’ bodies.
Tina Page, the local UAW ergonomics recorder at Rawsonville, said the process for modifying a job from standing to sitting usually starts with a worker’s request for a chair. The LEC begins an analysis of the job and whether a chair is appropriate. Measurements are taken and a video may be made.
A computer program called an Ergonomic Survey Tool is used to determine what
motions the job requires and how to minimize the stress on individual body parts.
If the job is eligible for a chair, certainly a five-gallon bucket and foam rubber
isn’t appropriate. An adjustable chair that has an ample seating area,
a backrest and footrest are necessary.
All new jobs in the plant are evaluated for chairs, as are jobs that workers
are placed in when they return from medical leave.
Four years ago the LEC at Rawsonville studied all the chairs in the plant and replaced 85 percent of them because they were broken or outdated. It was negotiated in the local contract that five chairs be kept in the bulk store crib in case one breaks.
“This way, we don’t have to wait three weeks for a replacement,” Page said.
