UAW Asks GM to Shut Down Texas SUV Plant as Covid Cases Soar
(Bloomberg) -- The United Auto Workers union local in Arlington, Texas, has asked General Motors Co. to temporarily close its large-SUV plant in the city for the safety of its workers as cases of Covid-19 rise rapidly in the state.
“Due to the most recent data on the Covid-19 outbreak, the Bargaining Committee has asked General Motors to shut down Arlington Assembly until the curve is flattened for the benefit and well-being of our members,” UAW Local 276 said on its website. “Every day we are setting new records in the number of people who are testing positive in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.”
Confirmed Covid-19 cases in Texas have been rising by more than 5,000 a day in recent weeks, and the Lone Star State reported 4,288 new cases yesterday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Cases in Tarrant County, where the plant is located, increased by 393.
Read more: Texas's Positive-Test Rate Soars to Record 14.31%: State Data
There could be a standoff over closing the GM plant. The union is worried about worker safety, but shutting down Arlington would be a hit for GM. The plant is running on three shifts building the company's very profitable Chevrolet Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Cadillac Escalade large sport-utility vehicles.
“We're aware of the request and haven't made changes to our production plans because we have protocols designed to keep the virus out of the facility and have multiple layers of protection in the plant to prevent a spread of the virus,” said company spokesman Jim Cain. “There's no need to interrupt production.”
GM restarted operations at its U.S. plants the week of May 18 as cases in the upper Midwest subsided. Arlington resumed production on May 25 and is getting ready to make all-new versions of its SUVs later this year.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
-
Talking Points This Week: AI Cash Burn, A Tiger Comeback And An India That Still Finds Its Own Path
India is not immune to higher oil or tighter global liquidity, yet its earnings base is broader, its domestic policy levers are still available.
-
Foreign Investors Own Half Of HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank. An LTCG Cut Could Matter Most Here
Foreign portfolio investors have US$115 billion parked in HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank. If the government cuts long-term capital gains tax, Jefferies says returning foreign money could land here first.
