Employees at Renosol Seating in Selma have signed a petition asking the United Auto Workers union to leave them and the plant they work at alone.

More than 80 percent of the hourly workers signed the petition. According to Lear Corporation, which is the parent company of Renosol, 75 out of 91 hourly employees signed the petition.

“We are requesting UAW Union to leave this business and us, its employees, alone,” the petition read. “We do not need this union or any union here. UAW is not needed or wanted at Lear. Thank you.”

Lear’s Selma plant has been facing allegations of a hazardous work environment since last May, when an employee raised concerns about the plant’s air quality.

“If we thought the plant was putting our life in any danger, we wouldn’t have even signed the petition,” said Jacqueline Atkins, who has worked at the Selma plant for nine years. “If we thought our work place wasn’t safe, we wouldn’t have signed the petition.”

Since the allegations surfaced, some workers have been trying to get the plant to unionize, but employees that signed the petition are against allowing the UAW into their plant.

“We don’t need a union to speak for us,” Atkins said. “We can speak for ourselves. I feel like we are all grown and can make our own decisions.”

Atkins said she and other co-workers signed the petition because they believe the allegations against Lear to be false.

“A lot of stuff that we were hearing is not true about what was going on at the plant, and we felt like we would take it up on our own,” Atkins said.

A statement released by the Selma Workers Organizing Committee, which represents workers that spoke out about the allegations, claims the petition was blank with the exception of lines for people to sign their names and misrepresented to employees.

“This ‘petition’ is just the latest lie propagated by Lear in an attempt to cover up the fact that its plant is making workers sick,” the statement read.

Atkins disputes the claim that the petition was misrepresented.

“We all read it, and we did agree to sign it that we did not want any part of the union,” Atkins said. “We feel very strongly about the petition that we signed.”

The committee also claims promises were made to convince people into signing the petition.

“Many temporary workers were told that if they signed the petition, they would be eligible for permanent employment, and others who were already permanent were told that signing the petition would make it easier for friends and family who were temps to be hired permanently,” the statement read.

Atkins strongly disputed claims that employees were promised anything for their signature.

“No one tricked us, threatened us or anything else. We felt like everyone had their own voice,” Atkins said.