Also today on Speed Lines: Ford expects a $600 million hit in Q1 alone thanks to coronavirus. Toledo Police are investigating an incident Tuesday morning where a woman was struck by a car as six Dodge Ram trucks were stolen off the lot of the Jeep Plant. It’s irresponsible that they kept it open and exposed their employees.”, Workers at other maquiladora sweatshops in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas, also struck, forcing the closure of their plants. Dead corpses piled up in closets! Plants in Mexico are reportedly targeting next week to resume production. Chrysler Group will close the 96-year-old Jeep Parkway plant in Toledo, OH, once the last painted Jeep Wrangler body is completed today, June 30. There is no way we are going to be safe in there. “I got a robocall last week, which said that the plant would be open for work on Monday, April 27, basically inviting me to come back to work,” a worker from Dearborn Stamping Plant, where fellow worker Gregory Boyd died from COVID-19, told the WSWS. (Jeep). “We are happy with the auto companies’ response and cooperation on working through the health and safety protocols we will need in the workplace when it is appropriate to restart,” UAW President Rory Gamble said Thursday evening. After you put in your time in an auto factory, you’ve got medical problems. Our union dues are being used to pay the legal fees for our bribed and indicted officials. © document.write(new Date().getFullYear()) Brookline Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. “A lot of guys in the shop, I would say the majority, have preexisting medical conditions: diabetes, heart failure, obesity. Along assembly lines, UAW skilled trades workers at Fiat Chrysler's Jeep plant in Toledo, Ohio, worked during the shutdown to install shields to separate workers who would otherwise get too close. FCA joined the Ford Motor Company and General Motors (GM) shutting production down in the United States … Although she is reportedly considering an extension of her stay-at-home order until mid-May, she said it would largely be up to businesses “to enhance your protocols, whether it’s the cleaning of your workspaces or the wearing of cloth masks that you can procure now.”. Even as the death toll has reached 190,000 around the world and nears 50,000 in the US, automakers are reopening plants in Asia, Europe and North America. “We are going to have to look at the process of reengaging sectors of our economy,” Whitmer declared earlier this week. A shipping yard employee was hit by a vehicle stolen from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' Jeep assembly complex in Toledo, Ohio, on Tuesday. So, what will it be like with lots of sick people? “If hospitals can’t get PPEs they need, how will autoworkers get it?” they continued. If we go back, the wave will only increase. He’s a murderer and pushing drugs that haven’t been properly tested. As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, vehicle production around the world has stalled to a halt. The company doesn’t care whether you live or die. “Even though there is fear of retaliation and there is deprivation at home,” one Matamoros worker told the WSWS, “what matters is our health and the security of our families.” Referring to the deaths in Ciudad Juárez, she added, “We are the most unprotected class; it’s as if we were disposable for the employers.”. Any info on Jeep plant reopening? As of this writing, Michigan has 35,291 confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 1,325 new cases recorded on Thursday, the highest number since April 14 and the third day in a row that cases have risen again. As originally reported by Automotive News, Fiat Chrysler recently held a webinar with its suppliers where the automaker uncovered its plans to reopen both U.S. and Canadian production facilities early next month. Some choice we’re being given—either you go to work and possibly die, or you lose your job.”, GM’s attitude to the safety of workers has been demonstrated by its decision to keep open its Customer Care and Aftersales warehouse near Flint, Michigan, despite the infection of at least six workers, and by its firing last month of a local union shop chairman, Travis Watkins, at the GMHC axle plant in Wyoming, Michigan. “The company sees us as expendable. Automakers are only barely beginning to restart their plants, and many are focused on repurposing assembly lines for medical equipment instead of cars. Got a tip? Over the past several weeks, as many as 15 deaths of hourly FCA plant workers have been linked to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We have 6,000 workers in two shifts, plus truck drivers, plus parts people. Autoworkers in the United States are voicing their concern and anger over plans to restart the auto industry despite warnings by public health experts that congregating thousands of workers in factories will accelerate the spread of the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. The Grand Wagoneer is perhaps the biggest hit, as a delay to the highly anticipated three-row family hauler rumored to be based on the same underpinnings found in the Ram 1500 means that Jeep will face even more months without much-needed sales. We'll see if FCA can hold to this May 4 date or if more social distancing will be in order. They just want to start production.”. Start-of-production for the vehicle-assembly plant here is set for late 2020, he says. The same goes for Jeep Gladiator production at FCA’s second Toledo plant. “The situation in the nursing homes is unbearable to see. FCA plans to reopen most of its US and Canadian production plants on May 18, though its facility in Belvidere, Illinois, will remain closed until June 1. Auto executives met with Trump last week and are rolling out plans to open up assembly plants as early as the beginning of May. While not as exciting as a new model, Jeep's launch of the next-generation Grand Cherokee is equally as important as it marks the first big upgrade for the platform in a decade. In opposition to the nationalism of the UAW, these committees should unite with workers in Mexico and Canada and organize cross-border struggles. The media is telling us what the companies want us to hear.”. You can’t just flip a switch and tell people to come back to work. FCA says its Saltillo facility will resume manufacturing the Ram Promaster on April 20, and the Saltillo Truck Assembly plant resuming production of the Ram 1500 Classic and Heavy Duty the following Monday. To fight for their rights to health, a safe workplace and economic security, workers should form rank-and-file factory committees, independent of the UAW. Log in or sign up to leave a comment log in sign up. Several other plants in the U.S. and Canada are slated to resume production on May 18th, while the dates for FCA's powertrain and stamping plants have not yet been determined. Asking for a friend.. The worker from Toledo Jeep denounced the UAW’s attempts to pose as defenders of workers’ health and safety. “It is ridiculous to try to force us back to work,” an FCA worker at the Toledo, Ohio Jeep plant told the World Socialist Web Site. 2020 Jeep Wrangler (JL) at the Toledo North Assembly Plant. As of Sunday, ODH reported 15,360 confirmed and 603 probable cases of coronavirus, making 15,963 total in the state. Fiat Chrysler has announced plans to restart its manufacturing operations in America and Canada on May 4, including the Toledo Assembly Complex. 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