IKEA's Swedwood Danville, VA, site manager Ken Brown responded to questions raised by a recent LA Times article about working conditions at the plant.

According to an article from the Danville Register & Bee, Brown said that the picture being painted about the company’s treatment of its workers is not “the Swedwood he knows.” While acknowledging difficulties with getting the company — which opened in 2008 — up and running, he says those issues have been acknowledged and the company is moving forward.

In the interview with the Danville paper, Brown said that Swedwood does not discriminate — it treats all its workers fairly and if workers wanted to organize to form a union the company would respect that right. He added that the company has an open-door policy and since he was promoted to site manager in January, employee morale has improved.

The local paper also reported that the median pay for Swedwood Danville workers is $15.19 an hour and only five employees receive the starting $8 an hour pay.

Editor’s Note: WoodWorkingNetwork contacted IKEA Swedwood for additional comments, but the company had not responded by time of this posting.

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