Ford Employees To Return To Work With New Safety Precautions In Place
CHICAGO (CBS)--Thousands of employees returned to work at Ford plants across the country on Monday. The automaker is eager to pick production back up, but with new safety precautions.
Workers are arriving at the assembly plant in South Deering and there's been mixed reactions. CBS 2's Eric Cox talked with a few workers as they walked into the facility. Cox said some are excited to be back after two months and other are reluctant to return.
American automaker Ford is reopening 24 facilities across the country today — nearly 2 months after they were shut down b/c of #COVID19. Workers already arriving at the assembly plant in Chicago's South Deering neighborhood. @cbschicago pic.twitter.com/hvLFLFxNbu
— Eric Cox (@EricCoxTV) May 18, 2020
The South Deering assembly plant designs the Ford Explorer police SUVs. The plant usually has three shifts a day, but with this restart, only two will be returning.
The same goes for the Ford facility in Chicago Heights.
Ford's already reopened facilities and China, and a restart is also well underway in Europe with COVID-19 still a major concern. The American automaker says the restart in the states will not be happening without doing safety rules.
Some of those new protocols include face masks, thermal scanning for high temperatures and daily employee surveys that screen for symptoms.