As a major transportation seating manufacturer that serves public sector customers and has benefited from public tax incentives and financing, Chicago-based Freedman Seating, now owned by Lippert Components, has a particular responsibility to provide jobs that deliver meaningful economic opportunity to workers and the surrounding community.
In a new report, Jobs to Move America (JMA) investigated working conditions at Freedman Seating’s manufacturing facility on Chicago’s West Side, a largely Black and Latinx community impacted by historic disinvestment and poverty. Through a survey of 116 hourly manufacturing workers and with data analysis from the Center for Urban Economic Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, our research found the following problems at Freedman:
- Low wages: The median hourly wage for survey respondents was $19.45 – 13.8% less than the median for comparable production occupations in the Chicago Area, according to BLS data. The median hourly wage for surveyed assemblers ($18.85) is closer to the city’s minimum wage of $17.05 than to the Chicago Metro Area median of $20.99 for assembler occupations.
- Household precarity: Roughly three-quarters of respondents reported struggling to pay for utilities (77%), food (74%), or housing (71%) at least sometimes over the past year; and 62% reported difficulty paying medical expenses at least sometimes.
- Health and safety hazards: 81% reported noticing one or more workplace hazards in the preceding 12 months. The most frequently cited hazards were a leaky roof (68%), excessive heat inside the factory (52%), rodents or pests (52%), poor ventilation (50%), slippery floors (41%), and lack of dust or fume extraction (39%).
- Limited growth opportunities: 40% disagreed that their chances for promotion and advancement are high and 42% disagreed that performance evaluations are done fairly.
- Barriers to speaking up: 40% reported raising a concern with management about their working conditions. Of these, nearly 70% reported that management took no action to resolve their concern, and multiple workers reported that after raising a concern, management increased monitoring of their work, increased their workload, or assigned more hazardous work – to name the most commonly cited management responses. One-third of surveyed workers disagreed that they could speak up without fear of retaliation, while at least one-quarter indicated they did not feel comfortable informing a supervisor or manager about unsafe working conditions.
These findings raise important questions about whether jobs supported by public contracts are meeting the standards Chicago workers and communities should expect. As one surveyed worker put it: “We should be able to do more than barely survive working full time making seats for the government.”
Addressing the issues raised by this research – higher wages, real opportunities for growth and advancement, healthier and safer conditions, and a meaningful voice on the job – could also support productivity and help Freedman recruit and retain the skilled, experienced employees it needs to succeed.
Previously a multigenerational family company, Freedman was acquired in April 2025 by Lippert Components, a subsidiary of LCI Industries. The two largest RV parts suppliers, LCI Industries (NYSE: LCII) and Patrick Industries (NASDAQ: PATK), are slated to combine in an all-stock merger, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals. The merger has raised potential antitrust concerns and in October 2026 was subjected to an extended merger review period by the U.S. Department of Justice.