Auto Makers Grapple With Worker No-Shows as Covid-19 Cases Surge
15 July 2020 - 4:29AM
Dow Jones News
By Ben Foldy
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are continuing to struggle
with keeping workers on the job as coronavirus cases surge
nationwide, forcing the auto-making giants to cut shifts, hire new
workers and transfer others to fill vacant roles.
The absences are hampering efforts to recover from the economic
havoc wreaked by the pandemic and return to normal production
levels after a nearly two-month shutdown this spring.
A GM assembly plant in Wentzville, Mo., that has been running
three shifts to restock the company's depleted supply of midsize
pickups is cutting one of the shifts to better cope with worker
absences, the company said.
The plant, normally staffed with around 3,800 hourly workers
split across the three shifts, will temporarily eliminate the third
one next week. Instead, the company will try to use workers from
that shift to fill absences along the assembly line in the first
two, the company said.
"In the short term, a two shift operating plan will allow us to
operate as efficiently as possible and accommodate team members who
are not reporting to work due to concerns about Covid-19," a
company spokesman said in an email, referring to the disease caused
by the coronavirus.
Ford also has been contending with an increase in absences among
the 12,500 or so hourly workers split across its two assembly
plants in Louisville, Ky., according to the company.
The auto industry is among several sectors, from retailers to
meatpacking plants, confronted by staffing shortfalls as positive
cases and safety concerns keep workers home. Companies invested in
safety measures to get production back to normal levels only to be
met by new waves of cases that threaten to set those efforts
back.
Outbreaks of Covid-19 in parts of the U.S. and abroad have led
to delays and even rollbacks of reopening plans. Authorities in
California on Monday ordered an immediate halt to indoor activities
in restaurants, bars, museums, zoos and movie theaters. Also
Monday, Walt Disney Co. said it would again close the Hong Kong
Disneyland theme park, less than a month after it reopened, after a
new surge of coronavirus cases struck the city.
In Louisville, rather than cut shifts, Ford has hired more than
1,000 new temporary workers since May across the two plants,
according to Todd Dunn, president of the local United Auto Workers
chapter representing the employees at the plants.
The new employees have been crucial to keeping up output, said
Mr. Dunn. "We would definitely have lost production, period," he
said.
Ford confirmed it has hired more workers to keep production
levels at or near full capacity, a spokeswoman said.
The UAW is monitoring the situation and working with the
companies to deal with the rise in absences while protecting
members' health and safety, a spokesman said.
Workers at the GM plant said that each of its three shifts have
been running with absences in the hundreds, curtailing production
of trucks and vans.
St. Charles County, where the plant is located, has seen a jump
in new confirmed cases of Covid-19 over the past few weeks amid a
broader surge in parts of the country, according to data from the
U.S. Covid Atlas, a coronavirus-surveillance effort run by
researchers at several institutions.
Around two dozen people working in the GM plant have tested
positive for the virus since the plant restarted in May, union
officials said.
In March, GM, Ford and other auto makers halted nearly all their
U.S. production amid rising case counts and orders from local
governments to curb nonessential economic activity. During a
stoppage that lasted nearly two months, auto makers developed new
safety protocols and worked with the UAW on how to manage the
pandemic in the plants.
Since coming back online in mid-May, plants have struggled with
supply-chain disruptions, temporary shutdowns caused by new
positive cases and worker absences. At some plants, workers have
requested the plants be closed after positive cases.
Keeping the plants staffed and running has been a challenge, Mr.
Dunn said. "When they said it was a pandemic, it sure as hell
didn't sound like it was going to be easy," he said. "It's just
really severe working conditions."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 14, 2020 14:14 ET (18:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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