General Motors is starting production at three of its North American parts plants on Monday.
GM is also recalling its skilled trades workers and some production workers to most of its assembly and engine plants on Monday too to prep the equipment and the plants for restarting that production the week of May 18, a person familiar with GM's plans who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak on the topic.
But some local union leaders and workers remain nervous about returning to the factory. Often, the jobs on the line require close worker contact and physical exertion that makes wearing face masks and safety shields difficult and, some say, dangerous.
Then, there's the mere anxiety over the continued coronavirus pandemic.
"We had anxiety walking out of here and I lost two friends who didn’t even get to collect a retirement check. They died from COVID," said a union official at GM's Romulus Powertrain plant. He asked to not be identified for fear of repercussions. "We’ll do OK, but as soon as we have another case of it, they’ll shut the plant down.”
Safety before restart
GM is taking every precaution it can to make sure there are no more cases of the virus.
The union official commended the safety protocols GM has put in place, but he said, "It is going to be hard at the start." He'd like to see more, such as plexiglass partitions along the assembly line for distancing.
For now, here are the GM parts plants starting production Monday:
- Lockport Components in Lockport, New York, where GM makes parts such as radiators, condensers, heater cores, HVAC modules and oil coolers.
- DMAX Duramax Diesel in Moraine, Ohio, where GM makes the Duramax 6.6-Liter V-8 turbo-diesel engine.
- St. Catharines Propulsion plant in Ontario, Canada, where GM makes the V6 engine, V8 engine and the GF6 transmission for a variety of vehicles.
These supplier plants support the restart of assembly production in North America the week of May 18.
Here are some other plants GM plans to restart on May 18 as confirmed by the person familiar with GM's plans and local union officials:
- Flint Assembly, where GM builds its Heavy-Duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra Crew and Regular Cab pickups.
- Fort Wayne Assembly, where GM builds the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500.
- Arlington Assembly, where GM builds its Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade full-size SUVs.
- Toledo Transmission where GM makes six-speed, eight-speed and ten-speed rear-wheel-drive and nine-speed front-wheel-drive transmissions used in a variety of vehicles.
- Romulus Powertrain where GM builds its V6 engine for the Chevrolet Camaro, its small pickups, Cadillac sedans and XT5 SUV, GMC Acadia and the Chevrolet Blazer SUV built in Mexico. It also builds the 10-speed transmission used in GM's full-size SUVs built in Arlington, Texas.
Then there are some plants, such as GM's Bowling Green in Kentucky where GM makes the Corvette, starting production May 26, according to a company alert to union members.
On Monday, GM will start bringing in certain hourly and salaried employees to all its plants that are slated to start production on May 18, the person said.
Those people will be trained on safety, establish safety protocols and begin preparing the facilities for restart. GM has communicated its planned restart dates with employees, said David Barnas, GM spokesman.
"Before anyone starts work at a plant, we will conduct detailed safety orientation sessions to ensure everyone understands GM’s safety system and can ask questions. Only after those orientation sessions are completed will regular production resume," Barnas said.
'At all costs'
The UAW has had on-going discussions with the automakers about restart and has said that an early May restart would be too soon for the plants to be safe. When asked about GM's plans to restart its parts facilities on Monday, a UAW spokesman issued the following statement from UAW President Rory Gamble:
“While it is the companies that have the sole contractual right to determine the opening of plants, we have the contractual right to protect our members. And we have and will continue to do so at all costs.”
On Tuesday, the Free Press first reported, GM told union members it would restart most of its North American assembly plants the week of May 18. GM idled its North American assembly plants in March sending about 48,000 workers home.
More: GM tells UAW members its planned date to begin factory restarts
In its Wednesday earnings announcement GM wrote that it developed the standard safety measures it will use at its plants based on what it has learned from its factories in China and Korea.
It said it also learned some safety processes from its critical-care ventilator production at its plant in Kokomo, Indiana and its face-mask production at Warren, Michigan.
Finally, GM has already tested out some safety protocols on nearly 1,000 workers at its Arlington Assembly plant in April. GM said all of its safety plans and personal protective equipment meet or exceed Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization guidelines.
More: 1,000 GM workers in Texas tested automaker's new COVID-19 safety protocols
Romulus cautious
In Romulus, those who have seen the GM safety protocols in place have mixed feelings.
“They’ve done a hell of a good job with sanitizing the place, taking their temperature, hand sanitizing, keeping them apart, they bring them in one door and take them out another door to make sure they don’t cross coming and going," said the union official at Romulus. "So they’ve done a lot. It just comes down to the assembly line."
The union official said the work stations on the assembly line are fixed in place and cannot be moved to allow for social distancing. Putting any dividers could pose a tripping hazard.
Instead, GM will require the workers to wear a face shield and a face mask, something that worries him.
“I think it’s going to be smothering to wear a face mask and a shield and try to build a motor every 24 seconds," the union official said. "But what do I know? You just have to rely on your brother being honest and not come to work if he's feeling sick. If we start slow and we don’t push, in a month or so we’ll be alright."
GM will have staggered lunch breaks and regular breaks on the Romulus transmission assembly line where 90 people work, the union official said. That way only about 26 people will be on break at the same time in the break rooms.
On the engine line, where there about 100 people, GM could not stagger the breaks due to the way that assembly line runs, he said. It has to all be shut down at once.
"But they've put the petitions in the break room on the tables. If they hadn’t done that, they would have had no other choice but to stagger it," the union official said. "(GM) feels this is enough to protect the membership and they may very well be right. I just err on the side of caution.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.
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