GM’s weed tests might not fly in tight job market
As the automaker struggles to find plant workers, the UAW wants it to stop testing for marijuana.
As the automaker struggles to find plant workers, the UAW wants it to stop testing for marijuana, which is now legal in Michigan and many other states.
There’s not usually much overlap between the pages of Automotive News and Merry Jane magazine. But news this month that General Motors is having trouble finding enough new workers to staff some assembly plants caught the attention of the cannabis industry news outlet, which rapper Snoop Dogg founded in 2015.
Merry Jane noted that the UAW has called for GM to stop testing new hires for marijuana use in light of the tight job market created by the pandemic and increasing legalization of the drug by many states, including Michigan. The publication argued that the hair follicle tests GM uses can produce false positives and aren’t able to differentiate whether an employee who had used drugs within the past several weeks was currently under the influence.
“When you have a line of people waiting for a job, then it’s OK to test for it,” Eric Welter, shop chairman for UAW Local 598 in Flint, Mich., told the Detroit Free Press. “But if you don’t have enough candidates, testing for marijuana might turn people off from applying.”
UAW officials also have suggested that GM needs to raise its starting pay in response to wage increases that other employers have made during the pandemic to help attract workers.
“What really needs to happen is lift that $16.67 cap and hire them in at $18,” Rich LeTourneau, shop chairman for Local 2209 in Fort Wayne, Ind., told the Free Press. “Pizza Hut is paying $20 an hour to deliver pizza here.”