Ford Motor Co. Michigan Assembly Plant stands still in Wayne, Michigan, on March 23. Anthony Lanzilote / Bloomberg / Getty Images
With Ford set to reopen the plant across the country on Monday after nearly two months, around 71,000 workers will return to work and there are no leave or layoffs, according to CEO Jim Hackett.
“I’m trying to hold everyone here. It doesn’t make sense to put them in the social system and make them not work, “he said.
To reopen on Monday, Ford wrote a 70-page handbook on safety measures for its workers, he added.
“The idea is that we design the experiences of returning workers,” he said. “We actually do role plays with people in terms of the types of questions they have when they go back to work, a day in someone’s life leaving their children unattended because there is no school, and they need to show up at work. We do it all end to end so we can find what we need to do to make this really work for everyone and that’s what makes it 70 pages. “
Some safety measures in these factories will include social distance, testing and requirements for wearing a mask. Before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, two workers would be inside the vehicle while passing the assembly line. That won’t happen again, according to Hackett.
The automaker has made several open assembly lines to produce personal protective equipment and ventilators, which will continue to be produced at the factory.
