OMAHA, Nebraska (AP) – US factories have been producing products for much of the pandemic at rates remarkably close to normal. However, manufacturers fear they will not be able to keep pace until most of the country is vaccinated, because the coronavirus continues to increase in areas where many factories are located.
The safeguards put in place after the initial wave of the virus appear to have prevented the huge outbreaks that have sickened hundreds of workers and forced automakers, meat processors and other companies to stop production last spring. But with COVID-19’s death toll in the country reaching 300,000 and the virus spreading to communities surrounding the factories, industry and unions say it may be impossible to keep the virus out of factories.
“We are seeing an increase in the number of positive (test) rates as you are seeing in neighboring communities,” said Gary Johnson, director of manufacturing at Ford Motor Co., which has about 56,000 workers per hour across the country.
Federal Reserve statistics show that US industrial production is about 5% below February levels, before the pandemic. It fell 16.5% between February and April, but has since recovered, led by car manufacturing.
Beef and pork production is slightly below last year’s levels, said Iowa State University agricultural economist Lee Schulz.
But since it will take months before many people can be vaccinated, the factories will remain vulnerable.
“Although we are doing well now, this virus can spread quickly in areas,” said Mark Lauritsen, director of the food processing and meat packaging division at the United Food and Commercial Workers International union. “I worry every day that this virus will explode in one of our plants, even with all the care we take.”
In auto factories and factories in other industries where the United Auto Workers union represents workers, cases have increased slightly since Halloween, but almost all have been traced outside the factories, said UAW President Rory Gamble.
Since reopening in May, after an eight-week stoppage, three workers at Fiat Chrysler plants near Detroit have died of the virus, adding to the fear among thousands of workers.
Gamble said that much of the fear comes from misinformation about workers who caught the virus in factories, which is not true.
“They need to have a complete understanding that we are doing everything we can to keep them safe,” said Gamble. “Because they have a right to be afraid.”
Statistics on the impact of the pandemic on the refrigerator industry offer many reasons for concern. The UFCW union, which represents about 80% of the country’s beef and pork workers and 33% of its poultry workers, estimates that at least 19,800 slaughterhouse workers have been infected or exposed and 128 have died of COVID-19.
Employees like Donald Nix, who works at a Tyson Foods hog processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, are distressed by the virus that left him out for 27 days in the spring with fever, body aches and severe headaches.
Nix, 51, is concerned that his co-workers are sick. During the spring, more than 1,000 of the plant’s 2,800 workers were infected and at least six died. “My workplace is still at high risk. My job is still at high risk, ”he said.
But the meat industry giants – Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, JBS and Cargill – say that the security measures that were put in place after the big outbreaks last spring allowed them to limit the spread of the virus.
“We made substantial investments in personal protective equipment, safeguards against social distance and other health and safety measures in our business. We have seen a dramatic reduction in active cases involving members of our team since last spring, ”Tyson’s CEO Dean Banks recently told investors.
The measures include well-being questionnaires before work, temperature checks, plastic screens between workstations, increased plant cleanliness, random tests and mandatory use of masks and other protective equipment. The industry spent about $ 2.5 billion on these improvements and additional pay to workers in the first six months, said Will Sawyer, a protein economist at Cobank, an agribusiness bank.
At Ford, factories operate with about 98% of their pre-pandemic production. Most workers who show symptoms or have been exposed to the virus stay at home until the danger of infecting others passes, limiting its spread in the factories, Johnson said. The automaker hires temporary workers to replace them, which allows it to keep the assembly lines running.
Automotive and meat packaging companies say that, in general, less than 1% of their workforce is catching the virus. The automakers and the UAW are asking workers to wear masks in public outside the factories.
Members of the UAW, which represents 150,000 workers employed by General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler, said the companies have largely followed their precautions and protocols.
“I know people who have had and tested positive, but as far as I know, they are doing what they should be doing with regard to quarantine and testing people,” said Andrea Repasky, a forklift operator at the GM pickup truck in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The people she passes through the factory always wear protective equipment correctly, she said. Management publishes how many people test positive in each shift, and the numbers have been relatively small, even with a small increase after Thanksgiving, she said.
Ford, General Motors, Toyota and others are beginning to see small problems with small parts companies having to close factories due to virus outbreaks or government restrictions, especially in Mexico. Ford’s Johnson said the lack of truck drivers is affecting parts deliveries. The company lined up just-in-time freight to get parts and keep factories up and running, he said.
Ford had to delay production of its new Bronco SUV from spring to summer because of a shortage of virus-related parts that the company did not specify.
Toyota said it was close to interrupting assembly lines due to a lack of parts, but has so far managed to avoid it.
“There were some closed calls, for sure,” said spokesman Scott Vazin. “On any given day, we have up to 10 pieces that we are monitoring closely on a red alert.”
UFCW’s Lauritsen said he hopes the industry will continue to work hard to limit the spread of the virus.
“We cannot be complacent just because things seem to be holding up now,” said Lauritsen. “We know that plants of any kind – whenever people come together in large groups – can act as a super propagator of this virus.”
___
Krisher reported from Detroit.
___
Follow Josh Funk and Tom Krisher on Twitter at https://twitter.com/funkwrite and https://twitter.com/tkrisher.