Three major North American automakers shut down to the end of March

The market environment and the need for deep cleaning of the assembly business prompted the three major North American automakers to stop production by the end of March GM confirmed that it had begun a systematic and orderly suspension of manufacturing operations in North America The suspension will last at least until March 30 The production status will then be reassessed weekly Ford's U.S., Canadian and Mexican plants, which shut down on the night of March 19, will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected by March 30 In addition, FCA works with UAW to listen to its employees The company's plants across North America have also been phased out from March 19 until the end of March GM, Ford and FCA are working with UAW to form a coronavirus task force to strengthen the protection of production and warehouse employees at the three companies General Motors chairman and CEO Mary Barra, Ford executive chairman Bill Ford, Ford president and CEO Jim Hackett, FCA CEO Michael Manley and UAW chairman Rory gamble will lead the working group The three companies have set up a similar task force in Canada "GM and UAW have always put the health and safety of people entering GM's plants first, and we have agreed to systematically and orderly suspend production to help fight the coronavirus," said GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra We have been taking special precautions around the world to keep our factories safe, and recent developments in North America have shown that this is the right approach I would like to thank Rory gamble, chairman of the UAW, Terry dittes, vice chairman of the UAW, and the local leadership for their teamwork, which led us to take this unprecedented step " "UAW members, their families and our groups will benefit from the current statement and we are confident that we are making every effort to protect our health and safety during the epidemic," said Rory gamble, President of the UAW This will give us time to review best practices and prevent the spread of the disease We appreciate the actions GM is taking now and will continue to work with them to develop a health and safety plan for production recovery " Kumar Galhotra, President of Ford Motor North America, said: "we are continuing to work closely with union leaders, especially UAW, to find ways to help keep employees healthy and safe, and we are also looking for solutions to continue to provide customers with the car solutions they really need In this unprecedented era, we are exploring unique and creative solutions to support our employees, customers, distributors, suppliers and society " The leaders of UAW and Ford will work together in the coming weeks to develop a plant restart plan and explore additional protocols and procedures to help prevent the spread of the virus One of the most important is to find ways to maximize the social distance between factory workers - whether during working hours or shifts, and maximize the cleaning time between shifts In addition, Ford's production bases in Cologne and salruva, Germany, as well as its cleova plant in Romania, have been temporarily shut down since the 19th Ford's Valencia assembly and engine plant in Spain has been temporarily shut down since the 16th, after three workers were confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus Commenting on his actions, FCA CEO Mike Manley said: "in cooperation with UAW, we have visited many of our factories, and we need to ensure that our employees feel safe at work and take all possible measures to protect them In this uncertain period, we will continue to do the right things for our employees " Source: China Plastics Online