Before the coronavirus outbreak shut them down, U.S. auto factories were hectic workplaces where men and women worked side by side along fast-moving assembly lines, ate in crowded break areas, and jostled in and out of gates as they changed shifts.
A General Motor workers uses a sonic welder to attach ear loops to medical masks, as the spread of the coronavirus disease continues, at the former GM Transmission facility in Warren, Michigan, U.S., April 23, 2020. Photo taken April 23, 2020. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook
GM’s face mask factory sits in a sprawling maze of abandoned transmission gear machining stations. Automakers have compared their crash programs to manufacture medical equipment for the COVID-19 outbreak to the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ of the World War Two era, when Midwestern auto plants were converted to build tanks and airplanes. The Warren plant, built in 1941, has now played a role in both crises.
Before the COVID-19 crisis, Mizzi traveled the world, working with plants to launch new GM vehicles on time. Shortly after GM’s U.S. plants were forced to shut down in March, Mizzi said his boss called to ask if he could lead the crash project to start making masks. The masks then go to workers who sit in front of small machines that use sonic waves to attach elastic ear straps.
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