Auto suppliers, manufacturers grapple with declining morale, mental health pressures

DETROIT -- There is something broken at manufacturing plants across the auto industry, and it isn't just the supply chain.

Employee morale has suffered profoundly as industry troubles over the past three years, including staffing shortages, production volatility and recession fears, weigh on the workforce, according to labor leaders and experts.

The issue was brought to the forefront after a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a Forvia plant near Detroit last month, the day after it was reported the company planned to lay off 268 workers. Police say an argument between two employees over tools was the cause of the shooting.

It's impossible to ignore all of the other stressors that may have contributed to the violence, said Waymon Halty, vice president of UAW Local 155, which represents workers at the Forvia plant. It also remains to be seen what long-term impact the incident could have on employees.

"Obviously, with the history of manufacturing, they just need bodies," Halty told Crain's Detroit Business, an affilaite of Automotive News, last week. "We just need a human being to be there, and what a lot of times happens is, we get a lot of people with stress and a lot of people with heartache and a lot of people with hardships and all it takes is a small little spark to flame up something."

Increased stress has pervaded nearly all industries and workplaces over the past three years during the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout, and it has had a particularly strong impact on Michigan's largest sector, said David Worthams, director of employment policy at the Michigan Manufacturers Association.

After years of trying to mitigate the crippling microchip shortage, a different type of crisis has cropped up in the automotive industry: Employers are grappling with the growing issue of mental health — long a taboo topic in the workplace, especially for an industry defined by grit and hustle.

In response to the general increase in stress and burnout across workplaces, the state announced Thursday that it is launching a hub to centralize resources and strategies to address mental health.

The hub started from a work group launched last March and operates with existing resources from the Labor and Economic Opportunity department. Deputy Director Sean Egan said he is working on a legislative proposal to secure funding for it.

The plan is to drill down into different sectors to identify industry-specific problems, Egan said. Manufacturing and health care are at the top of the list as sectors most hampered by workplace mental health issues.

"What we see from anxiety and depression is that chronic stress is a precursor of our minds kind of moving in that direction," Egan said.

Egan will also host monthly webinars starting Jan. 19 focused on dealing with mental health.

"In general, coming out of the pandemic, there is a sense that the workplace is not as energizing as it used to be," Worthams said. "In society in general, people don't like talking about mental health issues because they see it as a weakness."

In a 2022 study conducted by nonprofit Mental Health America, which surveyed 11,300 employees in the U.S., four in five respondents said workplace issues affect relationships with family, friends and co-workers. A third of employees said their company's leadership talks openly about mental health, and nearly 60 percent of respondents said they spent time looking for another job.

Staffing shortages persist in the auto industry and beyond, from manufacturing plants to hospitals. The Forvia plant near Detroit has struggled to hire enough employees and balance staffing with volatile customer production schedules, Halty said.

Absenteeism compounds employee dissatisfaction, according to Michelle Kaminski, associate professor at Michigan State University's School of Human Resources and Labor Relations. That's because workers who do show up are forced to pick up the slack and are often pressed by supervisors.

"Work is the top stressor for a lot of people, and it never used to be like that," Kaminski said.

Across the 50 plants UAW Local 155 represents, Halty said there has been a significant increase in employee issues related to stress, burnout and violence.

"It's the job itself, it's the stressors of having to be a just-in-time plant, having to get these parts out," Halty said. "It's coming to a head, unfortunately."

For the Forvia incident, after the suspect was apprehended and the victim transported to a hospital and declared dead, operations resumed at the plant, which makes seats for the Jeep Wagoneer built at the nearby Stellantis Warren Truck Assembly Plant.

That's not unusual, Halty said. The underlying rule in just-in-time manufacturing: Don't shut down the customer.

To be sure, Forvia followed proper protocols to a tee after the shooting, Halty said. The plant has had a beefed-up security presence since summer 2021, when an employee threatened to blow it up.

"We do have a robust security protocol at the facility, which includes guards in the parking lot," Forvia spokeswoman Misty Matthews said. "It's important to note that the incident occurred while police were already on site that day."

Immediately after the shooting, Forvia brought in licensed mental health professionals through employee assistance provider Ulliance Inc., where business is, not coincidentally, booming. The company grew 20 percent in 2022 over the previous year, CEO Kent Sharkey said. More than half of its client base is in manufacturing.

The growth is the result of an unprecedented number of problems in the workplace, he said. Emotional and psychological issues are the most common, followed by job-related issues and relationship problems.

"We have seen increased levels of anxiety, depression, stress, relationship problems and suicidal employees over the last three years," Sharkey said.

In the two weeks following the incident at Forvia, UAW health and safety coordinators deployed resources at the plant, including counseling and mentoring, Halty said.

"They had life coaches go around the lines, seeing if anybody wanted to have conversations, making sure there was no residual problems, trying to get ahead of anything that might come down the pipe," he said.

Raymar Jones, 22, has worked quality inspection at the plant for nearly a year. He said he likes the work and the people, but the hours are unreliable and making ends meet is a constant worry. He said he doesn't see a future for himself in manufacturing.

"I'll probably give this job another few months," Jones said outside the plant before clocking in for second shift. "I want something more that I know is reliable for me because I just had a daughter."

Since the incident at Forvia, other auto suppliers including Yanfeng Automotive Interiors across the street and Bridgewater Interiors have reached out for help handling employee issues, Halty said.

Other suppliers, such as seating and electronics giant Lear Corp., are trying to take a more proactive approach to mental health, both for office and plant workers.

"It's a very, very real issue, and it's at the top of my mind," CEO Ray Scott told Crain's in an interview last week. "When I grew up in the automotive sector, you had to be tough, you had to work 14 hours a day … if you had mental health issues, there's something wrong with you … We all have issues, and it's OK to have issues."

At the end of 2021, Lear launched a pilot program in the United Kingdom, training 70 employees to support the mental well-being of peers by meeting and talking with them. The program was eagerly received and has expanded to six sites covering 250 employees.

Lear is planning to roll out a similar program at plants across the U.S. this year, Scott said. Additionally, it is working to expand mobile health screenings to U.S. plants, which will include mental health checks. The company already offers free and confidential mental health counseling support to hourly and salaried workers in the U.S., and it regularly hosts speakers, such as local clinical psychologist Gretchen Marsh, to engage employees.

Scott said the most important thing he can do is set the tone from the top that it is OK to talk about mental health problems.

"Realizing it's a real issue, and it's not something you can just gloss over and say toughen up, it is what it is," Scott said. "Those are not the right answers anymore."

Addressing mental health could pay off for employers more than just avoiding potential tragedy in the workplace, said Worthams, with the MMA. Companies with strong mental wellness benefits have reported lower absenteeism rates and better productivity.

"If they want to have a resilient workplace, they need to craft benefit packages to make sure that there are mental health supporting tools available," he said.