Workers’ return is major test for auto industry

WARREN, Mich. — More than 130,000 autoworkers returned to factories across the U.S. for the first time in nearly two months Monday in one of the biggest steps yet to restart American industry.

The restart will test new health and safety protocols the automakers have developed and implemented in China, Europe and in U.S. plants producing medical equipment and supplies. How effective those protocols prove to be should help ease anxieties of those returning to work.

At a Fiat Chrysler pickup truck assembly plant in Warren, outside Detroit, workers entered a giant white tent with a sign that read: “Let’s restart and keep each other safe.” Inside they had their temperatures checked and answered a set of questions on whether they had symptoms of COVID-19.

“I feel safer than being anywhere at any stores because they got the screening and everything,” said Ann’alazia Moore, a janitor at the factory. “I feel like that’s amazing. That’s smart. I like that.”

Most workers at the Warren assembly plant came with masks strapped around their faces under new safety guidelines. And at least one worker was sent home after answering “yes” to being exposed to the coronavirus.

Detroit’s Big Three — Fiat Chrysler, General Motors and Ford — as well as Honda and Toyota all had screening procedures in place at dozens of factories that opened from the Great Lakes states to Tennessee and Texas and at Tesla’s factory near the San Francisco Bay.

Resuming production is a test for the industry that represents almost 4% of the national economy and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Outcries in March from autoworkers who worried for their health and that of their families — and stay-at-home orders from governors in auto-producing states — contributed to the automakers’ decision to shut down plants in North America as government orders accelerated a slump in demand. Many workers were afraid of getting the virus but believed automakers were trying to keep them safe.