US auto industry starts to return to life after lockdown
Suppliers gear up to support a sector that employs nearly 1 million people in America
The US auto industry slowly returned to life on Monday, with some vehicle assembly plants reopening after the coronavirus lockdown while suppliers geared up to support a sector that employs nearly 1 million people.
On a chilly and damp Monday morning, hundreds of workers at Fiat Chrysler Automobile’s (FCA) truck plant in Warren, Michigan began lining up to start the shift. Signs overhead read: “Let’s restart.”
“I’m a little nervous,” said Larry Smith, 53, of New Baltimore, who works on wheel alignment away from the assembly line. “They made all the precautions (and) they’ve done everything they can to prepare us ... I’m trusting in God.”
FCA reopened four US assembly plants on Monday, including Warren Truck, on a single shift, as well as four parts plants.
The reopening of car plants will be a closely watched test of whether workers across a range of US industries can return to factories in large numbers without a resurgence of infections.
Auto companies have rolled out safety measures to protect workers, including the use of temperature monitors for those entering plants, personal protective equipment such as face masks and shields, and revamped and deep-cleaned factory floors that emphasize social distancing and more.
Theresa Segura, 61, of Lincoln Park, arrived for work at the Warren plant on Monday but was immediately sent home after noting on an FCA questionnaire that she had been exposed to a family member who had just tested positive for the virus.
Segura, who has worked at the truck plant since 1993, said she thought that it was in any case too soon to reopen “because there are still people sick out there.”
“We’re risking our lives going in there,” said Segura, who works as a “floater,” moving from job to job at the plant as needed.
General Motors Co. (GM), Ford Motor Co. and FCA all have been preparing for weeks to reopen their North American factories in a push to restart work in an industry that accounts for about 6 precent of US economic activity.
For the automakers and their suppliers, many of which began reopening their plants last week, the restart is critical to ending the cash drain caused by a two-month shutdown that was forced on them by COVID-19.
The emphasis is on getting assembly lines again producing such profitable vehicles as GM’s Chevrolet Suburban SUV, Ford’s F-150 pickup truck and FCA’s Jeep Wrangler SUV.
“Ultimately we’re in this together. Because if we don’t build trucks, Ford Motor Co. is gone,” said Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, the union that represents more than 14,000 hourly workers at Ford’s two Kentucky assembly plants, which build trucks and SUVs.
President Donald Trump on Thursday will tour a Ford manufacturing plant in Michigan that has been repurposed to make ventilators and personal protective equipment, according to the White House.