COVID-19 vaccines reaching auto plants, but challenges remain

There appears to be light at the end of the assembly line.

Nearly a full year after COVID- 19 ignited a period of fear and unease for U.S. auto workers that led to plant shutdowns and strict safety measures, the industry has entered a more hopeful phase in the pandemic fight.

At the Jeep Cherokee plant in Belvidere, Ill., in February, Stellantis became the first automaker in the U.S. to begin vaccinating its hourly work force.

The process moved quickly after Illinois made doses available to front-line essential workers, which it considers those in manufacturing to be.

Stellantis was able to roll out the vaccine on short notice because of a nearby health facility it opened last summer in partnership with SwedishAmerican Health System.

Vaccine distribution comes with a set of new challenges for the auto industry. The goal early in the pandemic was to get workers back on the lines in a safe environment that required masks, social distancing, updated cleaning protocols and temperature checks.

Now, manufacturers have to monitor vaccine instructions that vary by state in an ongoing waiting game while conducting outreach to ensure workers are comfortable getting the free vaccine when their time comes.

"The biggest issue we've really had to date is just access to the vaccine overall," Dolf Van Amersfoort, vice president of compensation and benefits in North America for Stellantis, told Automotive News. "And I think that's probably going to be the case for the next few weeks and months until that becomes more available throughout most of the states where we operate."

The Belvidere Assembly Plant clinic was allotted doses for 1,200 people, about a third of the work force, who received the first of two shots of the Moderna vaccine last month. The second round for those workers begins this week.

Meanwhile, workers at most other plants are still waiting for their chance. Many of them, weary of breathing through a stuffy mask for every long, arduous shift on the line, are hopeful some safety measures can be relaxed if enough of their colleagues get the vaccine. Despite speculation at some recent employee meetings, the automakers aren't saying whether any changes to mask protocols could be on the horizon.

General Motors said vaccinations are one measure, in addition to masks and social distancing, to limit the spread of the virus.

Although the Detroit 3 have been working to make the vaccine available to their workers — Ford Motor Co. in November ordered a dozen deep freezers to store doses produced by Pfizer — they can't force anyone to take it.

Van Amersfoort understands not all workers will want to. He said Stellantis wants "to make sure it's an option, not a mandate."

"We actually did a survey among our population — most of our manufacturing employees — and we found, with varying levels, people being willing to take the vaccine," Van Amersfoort said. "It was actually quite encouraging."

UAW President Rory Gamble agrees that vaccinations shouldn't be made a condition of employment.

But the union has been talking to its membership about the importance of getting vaccinated, and Gamble revealed during a Feb. 10 interview with the Automotive Press Association that he'd recently gotten his first dose. Other than a momentary "hot flash," Gamble said he felt fine afterward. He was slated to get his second shot last week.

"We feel it should be handled just like the regular flu vaccination," Gamble said while speaking to the association last month. "We want to make it readily available where folks can get it. They can come to work and get the shots and feel a lot safer in what they do."

Van Amersfoort is part of a cross-functional team that the former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles assembled toward of the end of 2020 to manage its vaccination strategy and its response to the pandemic in general. The group meets two to three times a week, he said, and consists of staffers from external affairs, legal, communications, medical operations, and environmental health and safety.

The external affairs unit, he said, stays in contact with the states to "understand where are we within specific phases of the allocations, when do they think that we would be up, when would essential workers be up for vaccines and so forth."

The automaker has been educating employees about the efficacy of the vaccine through panels and informational documents.

Workers in Belvidere, a Stellantis spokeswoman said, received flyers about how to sign up for vaccinations and were sent text messages to remind them of available appointments. The plant also did a podcast with SwedishAmerican on why people should consider the vaccine.

A group of plant workers got their shots a few days before the vaccinations officially began and served as ambassadors within the factory.

Having the wellness center 2 miles from the Belvidere plant, Van Amersfoort said, was critical to getting the vaccine administered. Stellantis has similar facilities in Kokomo, Ind., and Detroit.

"Being able to just inform employees of the opportunity to get a vaccine, get them scheduled, provide the location and then eventually administer the vaccine really requires a strong resource network and infrastructure," he said.

The Boone County Health Department, which is working with Stellantis in Belvidere, wants to take lessons learned from the partnership and apply them to other manufacturers in the area, said Amanda Mehl, the county's health administrator.

Mehl said the biggest challenge going forward will be vaccine supply.

"Our No. 1 exposure location due to our contact-tracing efforts here in Boone County was the factory setting," Mehl said. "For us, it was a huge priority to get into the factory setting with vaccine because our goal is to stop the spread and prevent future spread of COVID-19 as quickly and efficiently as we can."

GM said it encourages all employees to get vaccinated, and it is working with public health officials to determine vaccine availability and priority groups in each state where it has employees. Regional teams plan to partner with local health systems, medical suppliers and pharmacies to administer the vaccine, GM spokesman David Caldwell said.

GM launched a video series in which its global manufacturing chief, Gerald Johnson, asks Dr. Jeffery Hess, GM's medical director, employees' vaccine questions, and it has a website that offers responses to common questions and concerns. Many questions center on the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

The videos and frequently asked questions are shared on plants' private Facebook pages and internal video monitors, and information packets are given to plants' group leaders for in-person meetings.

Caldwell said GM leaders, at the plant and corporate level, have been publicly sharing why they are choosing to be vaccinated.

But their efforts are up against misinformation spreading online and long-running debates about vaccinations in general. At a meeting with a human resources representative at a GM plant in Michigan last month, employees asked questions about the vaccine itself, said a union worker who attended. They wanted to know: What is in the vaccine? Will they be injected with the virus? Will they still have to wear masks in the plant? Will they get paid leave if they suffer from negative side effects?

Most of the questions went unanswered, said the worker, who asked not to be identified discussing details of the closed meeting.

"The most proactive thing [automaker representatives] could do," the worker said, "is find out all the information that you need to see what you might have to give back to the people."

Michael Martinez contributed to this report.