General Motors is changing course at the Wentzville meetinghouse, even as it continues to revel in the absenteeism of major employees due to fearful cases of coronavirus that accumulate in the surrounding community.
On Monday, GM scheduled his third shift at the plant near St. Louis. The measure would have meant that some of the other 1250 people in that shift would be reassigned to other shifts or that some would be placed on leave.
But GM says he will now continue to manage the plant in three shifts by moving staff, in all likelihood adding the transfer of some of Michigan staff to Wentzville, Missouri.
“We have a plan in place that will allow Wentzville to continue operating in 3 shifts. It’s a tricky time to accommodate other people who weren’t returning to the paintings due to considerations about COVID-19,” GM spokesman Dan Flores said. The new operational plan will come with GM movements from other sites and this will certainly help. Any movement is made in accordance with the terms of the trade union contract. “
Local union leaders at the plant helped expand the plan, which Flores said can also come with the use of transitional staff for layoffs.
“Obviously, we don’t need anyone fired,” said a user familiar with plant operations who asked not to be known because there is no authorization to talk to the media. “But I think there are still disorders in the way GM manages COVID.”
As first reported through Free Press on July 11, GM planned to run Wentzville in two groups due to the effect of coronavirus on employee engagement.
But GM and the local union have figured out a way to keep the plant in three shifts and workers, what Flores says is GM’s precedence because “without the protection of people, we can’t make products.”
“We respect other people who don’t need to be exposed to paint due to COVID issues. But the top painters feel safe,” Flores said. “Clearly we will continue to monitor it, but we are confident that our security protocols are working.”
UAW said it was still in talks with GM and UAW’s local leaders at the plant, adding wentzville.
“Every week this pandemic can bring adjustments or demanding situations,” said Brian Rothenberg, A spokesman for UAW. “We aggressively monitor all these adjustments, taking into account the protection of members and compliance with plant protocols, as well as contractual provisions related to staffing and proposed transfers.”
Wentzville is a plant for GMOs. There, about 3,800 employees per hour bring together GM’s midsize Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks. GM is also building the full-size Chevy Express and GMC Savana trucks on the 5.1 million square foot floor.
But the facility is in St. Charles County, which has noticed an explosion of new instances of COVID-19 in recent weeks. At 7 a.m. on Monday, there were 3,063 cases of COVID-19 and 90 deaths in St. Charles County. This compares to 1,526 cases shown and 77 deaths on July 10, according to the county’s public fitness website.
Flores declined to reveal how many GM employees will move to Wentzville or where they will come from, saying that some may be local GM employees who are expected to be fired or may also come from out of state.
Gm’s group may also include working hours staff when GM left its Detroit-Hamtramck meeting facility inactive this year, he said. And until Friday, GM will finish the third shift at its Spring Hill meeting facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, due to weak demand. It will fire 525 production employees and professional investors and 155 transitority employees at the plant that manufactures the Cadillac XT5, Cadillac XT6 and GMC Acadia SUVs.
GM’s protection protocols are running in Wentzville, Flores said. It is believed that the staff who tested positive for the virus outdoors and the selection processes of GMOs prevented them from entering the plant.
But no one knows precisely how the virus affects the Wentzville workforce because GM will not provide the number of coronavirus cases in their plants. The company said it protected people’s privacy.
It is this lack of transparency that helps keep absenteeism high, the user said familiar with the plant’s operations.
“People don’t know who has it and who doesn’t,” the user said. “GM’s lack of transparency damages productivity.”
On June 12, Wentzville had instances since operations restarted in mid-May. At the time, UAW Local 2250 President Glenn Kage told Free Press that the union had asked GM to close the plant and that GM had refused. But GM sprayed the plant with a chemical disinfectant during the fourth weekend of July 4.
In a trade union communication sent to affiliates on Friday, the recent high received through the loose press, UAW Local 2250 store president Alan Chambliss said there were 44 cases of COVID-19 at the factory. But those who have contacted the informal press say the figure is much higher. Once hit through the loose press, Chambliss declined to comment.
GM follows a protocol if someone tests positive for the virus. Your medical staff at the plant is looking for contacts for anyone else who may have been in contact with the user who tested positive, Flores said.
“The challenge we have, whether it’s notifying or the local union, is that there is a balance between non-public data protection and data exchange with others who, to some extent, have a right to know what’s going on.” Flores said. “So we’re very limited in what we can share.”
To help maintain health, Flores said there were constant reminders that encouraged workers to practice the same protection protocols used at the plant at the net and at home, such as dressing in a face mask, social distance, and smart hand hygiene.
GM had to find a solution to keep the plant running for 3 shifts. Wentzville, like all GM meetinghouses in North America, remained dormant from mid-March to mid-May when the pandemic spread across the country. Between that and the UAW’s 40-day strike opposite GM last fall, hot-sold pickup trucks were rare, analysts said.
Medium trucks in the industry had a limited average source of forty-five days, according to Cox Automotive’s knowledge in the middle of the month. The industry is 60 days. Cox’s knowledge shows that GMC Canyon has a 73-day source, however, the Colorado Chevy only has a 46-day source.
This production drought and a weaker market overall led to a 37.3% drop in Colorado sales this quarter. Express sales fell 58.2% to 9,006, while Canyon sales fell 56.1% to 5,225 and Savana’s sales fell 68.6% to 2,984.
“Buyers were improving when the company switched to 0% financing agreements at the start of the pandemic and, even though the plants are already operational, automakers are suffering to catch up,” said Charlie Chesbrough, Cox Automotive’s senior economist. “Anyone looking for a good deal in a van will have a hard time getting one now, if they can locate the exact truck they want.”
More: 1250 threatened with layoffs at GM’s meetinghouse in Wentzville
More: GM rejects request to plant as coronavirus instances increase, union says
GM said there was a call for their vans, they just had to catch up on their production to fill the lots of runners.
“We’ve won a percentage of the retail market in our full-size truck business,” Flores said. “Our vans and SUVs are working very well and dealers want us to stock up because the maximum stock is still very low. Distributors love stocks, so they can offer consumers a wonderful choice.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Learn more about General Motors and subscribe to our newsletter.