AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)03/16 Report--

As the COVID-19 epidemic spread to the world, the United States, which once "bearish" the epidemic, officially held a media meeting on March 13 to declare that it would enter a "state of national emergency." At the same time, the US federal government will also launch $50 billion as an emergency reserve fund.

To this end, on March 15, two days later, General Motors, Ford Motor and Fiat Chrysler Workers Union (UAW), the three major auto giants in the United States, announced that they would jointly set up a task force to jointly deal with the impact of the epidemic and better protect the employees and production tasks of their three companies. Obviously, the current situation of overseas car companies affected by hidden information is still increasing.

According to the joint statement signed by the three companies, we are facing an unprecedented situation, and the working group will take prompt action to ensure the safety and health of employees. In the future, the working group will strengthen the screening of visitors, increase the cleaning and disinfection of public areas and contact points, and implement safety procedures and other preventive measures for potential contacts and people with influenza-like symptoms.

It is understood that the working group will be led by Rory Gamble, president of UAW, Mary Bora, chairman and CEO of General Motors, Bill Ford, executive chairman of Ford, Jim Hackett, president and CEO of Ford, and Mackay, CEO of Fiat Chrysler.

In fact, before the establishment of the task force, the US automobile industry was already on high alert to the novel coronavirus epidemic. In order to deal with the impact of the epidemic, the three companies have taken corresponding measures before. under the instructions of the first executive, all three companies have begun to require non-factory employees to work from home remotely so as not to infect and spread novel coronavirus; on the other hand, workers in the factory need to clean tools and workplaces every day.

Because the Big three General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler and the United Auto Workers (UAW) all want to maintain normal operation of the plant without stopping production while trying to protect the safety of factory workers. But some employees, especially hourly workers, become more anxious about the widespread spread of the epidemic because they feel that they are in a very difficult situation and are not able to isolate themselves and work from home as some employees do. Car companies require them to go to factories, so they will come into contact with thousands of people and face a high risk of virus transmission.

Earlier, an employee of Fiat Chrysler (FCA), a transmission plant in Cuomo, Indiana, tested positive for novel coronavirus. FCA later said that the confirmed employee was already receiving medical care and that all people who had been in direct contact with him had been quarantined at home. However, production in the factory continued, only the whole factory was disinfected, and in order to avoid overcrowding, only the distance between workers was adjusted.

On March 15, Ford announced that it would close its plant in East Valencia, Spain, for a week from March 16. The reason is that three employees of the factory tested positive for novel coronavirus, so the company has taken measures to quarantine all employees who have been in contact with infected workers.

Last week, U. S. auto industry executives said the outbreak had not affected car demand or factory production so far, and spokesmen for GM and Ford said there was no problem with operations for the time being. But in less than a week, some of the company's factories have been infected one after another, and if not dealt with in a timely manner, the spread and impact will continue to expand, so that the Big three will set up a task force to discuss the next response measures.

Some industry insiders believe that automakers usually arrange some alternate employees to adapt to a certain proportion of employee absenteeism. However, if the outbreak causes more workers to be infected or quarantined at home and absent from work, it could lead to reduced factory production and, in some extreme cases, factory closure. Therefore, this epidemic will bring an unprecedented challenge to the global automobile market.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat