GM's mask operation: a glimpse into the factory of the coronavirus era

Record ID: 1471441

  • Title: GM's mask operation: a glimpse into the factory of the coronavirus era
  • Date: 24th April 2020
  • Summary: WARREN, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (APRIL 24, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS INTERIOR SHOTS OF GM PLANT WORKERS IN SAFETY GEAR ASSEMBLING MASKS AT WORKSTATIONS WHILE WEARING PROTECTIVE GEAR
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2020 22:34
  • Keywords: COVID-19 GM plant General Motors workers auto industry coronavirus making masks safety gear
  • Location: WARREN, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES
  • City: WARREN, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Health/Medicine
  • Reuters ID: LVA001CAURLMV
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: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.
    That is not what auto factories are like in the era of COVID-19. A General Motors Co. operation set up in a shuttered transmission factory in Warren, Michigan to assemble face masks provides a glimpse of what manufacturing will look like for the foreseeable future.
    About 140 people currently work on two shifts producing surgical masks and more robust N95 masks at a pace of about 1.5 million masks a month, said Joe Mizzi, the GM manager who launched and oversees the operation.
    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.
    (Production: Mana Rabiee, Video: Rebecca Cook)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2020. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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