Despite all the evidence that we are nowhere near out of the woods with the coronavirus pandemic, the Detroit automakers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) have agreed to restart production at most facilities on May 18. Various part supplier facilities will restart even sooner.
When the auto industry first started addressing the pandemic in March, the joint task force of UAW President Rory Gamble and executives from the Big Three claimed there would be “extensive deep cleaning of facilities between shifts” and “extensive plans to avoid member contact.” But before the plants were idled, workers at many facilities reported that the bathrooms still weren’t regularly cleaned and were often without paper towels, soap, or toilet paper. Deep cleaning occurred at hardly any of the production plants at the time.
What’s more, virtually nothing was done—or can be done—to avoid member-to-member contact on the assembly lines on many of the jobs in these plants.
It’s no surprise then that many auto workers are skeptical that safety precautions will actually be implemented successfully as production resumes.