Unifor President Jerry Dias said the union would push automakers to “get their collective crap together” on worker safety and reexamine the viability of a global supply chain as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dias, whose union represents workers at Canadian plants operated by the Detroit 3, said the economic crisis caused by the virus outbreak should push automakers to reevaluate their business models. Just as the 2008-09 financial crisis tipped a fragile industry into disarray, the pandemic will expose the fragility of the global supply chain and the benefits of sourcing more parts locally, Dias said.
Even after the first wave of COVID-19 infections subsides and some of the global economy reopens, local outbreaks around the world threaten to temporarily shut down supplier plants and limit domestic vehicle production, he said.
“The auto industry, when we beat the pandemic and people go back to work, what they will find is that they are even more vulnerable now because of the global supply chain,” he said. “It’s almost as if the world needs to be healed at the same time in order for the supply chain to work.”
In the meantime, as North American plants remain closed, Dias said unions must ensure that workers are protected financially and are not rushed back to work too soon.
Dias is part of a COVID-19 task force with the heads of the Detroit 3’s Canadian units. The task force is charged with implementing enhanced protections for workers at factories and warehouses.
Dias warned automakers against coming back online unilaterally, saying the industry should reopen plants only when workers can feel safe.
“When people come back to work, they’ll still be nervous,” Dias said. “They’ll still be nervous about social distancing and about whether their workplace is, in fact, safe. So the roles of the health and safety committees and the role of the union is to make sure that our members are safe. People will trust us, frankly, more than they’ll trust the companies, and I’m not just talking about the auto companies.”