LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Thousands of Ford Motor Co. workers are back on the job today as Louisville’s biggest manufacturer restarts after a two-month hiatus because of the coronavirus.
But neither Kentucky Truck Plant in eastern Jefferson County nor Louisville Assembly Plant off Fern Valley Road is back at full strength. The plants normally employ more 12,500 hourly workers between them.
When cleaning crew and other contractor employees are included, that figures swells to 14,300, according to Todd Dunn, president of UAW Local 862, which represents rank-and-file Ford workers.
At KTP, the larger of the two plants by employees, about 5,700 of the 8,500 hourly workers have been called back this week, according to Allen Hughes, the UAW Local 862 building chairman at the plant.
KTP, which produces Super Duty pickups and the Lincoln Navigator and Ford Expedition SUVs, had run three “crews” of about 2,200 each before the shutdown, but it returns with only two crews.
At LAP, which primarily produces the Escape SUV, is running only one of its normal two shifts, with some extra workers from the idled shift, according to Herb Hibbs, UAW Local 862’s building chairman at LAP.
Kelly Keith, a longtime rank-and-file worker at LAP, said she is "glad" to be back to work.
"My whole livelihood depends on me having a job," said Keith during a phone interview on a break Monday.
Dunn, the president of UAW Local 862, said returning to work amid the pandemic brings is stressful for many employees.
"There’s anxiety in the plant -- I think it’s higher levels than normal," he said. "You come to work, you worry about taking something back home."
But Dunn said Ford could not stay idled indefinitely: "If we don’t eventually get back to manufacturing across the board, our country can fold in on itself, and I am not gonna live on my knees. We’re gonna stand up and fight."
Ford, which in March confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus among the workforce at KTP, has implemented a number of protocols to prevent virus spread at the plants.
Each day before entering the plants, workers are required to complete a “self-survey” with a handful of questions, such as “Have you had close contact with or cared for someone diagnosed with COVID-19 within the last 14 days?”
Like other big local employers such as Amazon and GE Appliances, Ford will check every workers’ temperature upon enter the plants each day.
Workers will be given a mask each day and required to wear it.
Safety glasses with side shields or face shields will be required “when jobs don’t allow for social distancing,” the company said last week.
Ford also said there will be more time between production shifts “to limit interaction between employees and allow for additional cleaning.”
Dozens of hand-sanitizer stations have been installed and commonly touched areas like turnstiles will be cleaned frequently.
“We’ve developed these safety protocols in coordination with our union partners, especially the UAW, and we all know it will take time to adjust to them,” Gary Johnson, Ford’s chief manufacturing and labor officer, said in a news release last week. “We are in this together and plan to return to our normal operating patterns as soon as we are confident the system is ready to support.”
Keith, the LAP worker, said Ford was unprepared in March to mitigate the virus, but now, "I feel like they are doing what they can; it's all about personal responsibility at this point."
Dunn said Ford workers will have to be mindful of new potential hazards like face shields fogging up and clouding vision and masks causing breathing issues in the summer heat.
"We need to make sure we are looking out for each other," he said.
