TOLEDO, Ohio — Monday was a big day for autoworkers as many returned to work at plants across the country, including a portion of the nearly 1,800 employees on the roster at the GM Powertrain Plant in Toledo.
General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler plants closed in mid-March to help flatten the curve and not to overwhelm the healthcare industry.
After nearly two months, thousands of line workers resumed work following new safety protocols to protect them from the novel coronavirus.
"They're gonna start practicing physical distancing literally from the parking lot into the building," General Motors Vice President of Global Workplace Safety Jim Glynn said. "We have visual cues or lines on the floor. X marks the spot so that we remind people what 6 ft. feels like in the new norm."
Workers who feel symptomatic will be urged to quickly see an on-site medical team for further screening. COVID-19 swab tests can be performed and have a 24 to 48 hour turn around.
"We'll also start the contact tracing so if you are positive, then we can reach out to coworkers. They can self-isolate and not come back for 14 days and make sure they know what their symptoms are and what to be watchful for," Glynn said.
Protective gear such as surgical masks will be provided and employees temperatures will also be scanned as they enter the plants.
The second and third shifts will be gradually phased in, in the coming weeks.
All three companies have said they would thoroughly and frequently clean facilities and allot extra time between work shifts to do so. At Ford, for instance, factories that had been running on three shifts, or essentially around the clock, will work on two shifts to allow extra time for cleaning. At Fiat Chrysler factories, 10 minutes per shift will be allotted for cleaning.
“We work really hard at imagining a world with Covid-19 in an assembly plant,” Ford CEO Jim Hackett said in an interview with CNN Friday. “So they have lots of consideration, of course, for social distancing. We used to have two people, for example, that would be inside the vehicle as it’s going down the assembly line. We stopped that.”
All three companies will also make changes to how “common areas,” such as dining areas, are used in order to keep employees apart from one another. Fiat Chrysler shared an image of a break area table that normally seats six that now has plastic dividers that reduce its seating to three.