General Motors will restart operations at its Bowling Green Assembly plant in Kentucky on Monday.
GM had idled the plant, where it builds the popular sports car, after a violent tornado swept through Kentucky early Saturday morning, damaging the facility.
The tornado caused a fire on the roof and damage to the exterior, including damage to an employee entrance, GM has said.
About 20 to 30 people were inside at the time and took shelter in the basement when emergency alarms sounded. No one was injured.
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GM laid off all 1,200 of those on the assembly line for the entire week as it idled the plant to assess damage and make repairs. About 90 skilled trades workers remained on the job, said Jason Watson, shop chairman for UAW Local 2164. Local 2164 represents the hourly workers at Bowling Green Assembly located about an hour north of Nashville, Tennessee.
On Thursday GM informed employees at Bowling Green that the plant is on track for a “cadenced return” to work starting Monday. That means only certain workers from departments return then. The entire workforce will return Tuesday.
“A safe restart of Bowling Green Assembly is our top priority, along with ensuring production of the highest quality vehicles for our customers,” said GM spokesman David Barnas. “Thanks to the incredible efforts of our employees at the plant — coupled with the additional assistance from other GM manufacturing locations — restoration efforts of the facility have quickly progressed this week.”
Barnas declined to disclose the cost to repair the damage to the facility. But he said collaboration among teams from other GM plants allowed Bowling Green leaders to form a recovery plan to resume plant operations quickly.
Within 48 hours of the tornado strike, for example, GM moved materials and resources from other GM locations to Bowling Green.
That included construction cranes from Spring Hill Assembly in Spring Hill, Tennessee, and materials from Factory ZERO in Detroit and Hamtramck, where GM just finished retooling to make all-electric vehicles starting with the 2022 GMC Hummer EV pickup in production now.
As of Thursday, Watson said the union’s local had received gift cards to help members affected by the tornado, Watson said. The offering was so generous, the local is going to share them with the surrounding community.
No plant employees suffered a total home loss, Watson said, but many have partial damage and remain without power, gas or water.
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Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.