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It’s no secret that buying a car is difficult right now. Between the extremely limited availability of parts and temporary plant closures, new cars have been hard to come by for months and used car prices have been put into orbit. Now, as summer approaches and parts availability is expected to start to pick up in the coming months, automakers like General Motors face another challenge: labor shortages.
One of the biggest barriers to hiring new workers, according to the Detroit Free Press, is that they simply aren’t as numerous as they used to be, and those looking for a job may not match the pool of workers. optimal for GM. To make matters even more difficult, many of the well-suited reject the starting salary of less than $ 17 an hour or are unable to pass the automaker’s drug test, which includes testing for cannabis.
Despite idling production of various models in its brands, GM’s procurement team has done a good job of alleviating the effects of the chip shortage on its best-selling and most profitable vehicles, namely pickup trucks. This meant focusing efforts on assembly plants in Flint, Michigan (where pickup trucks like the Chevrolet Silverado HD and GMC Sierra HD are built) and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Our truck factories have been running around the clock for months because the demand is so high, ”GM spokesman Dan Flores told the Detroit Free Press. “These are temporary seasonal workers who allow people to go on vacation and take time off while keeping the production schedule going.”
With parts becoming available and production capacity increasing, GM is reportedly looking to hire at least 450 part-time employees at Flint and 275 more in Fort Wayne.
According to Eric Welter, president of United Auto Workers Local 598, this has proven to be a challenge.
At the time of writing, GM has 66 production positions open across the country. Recruitment agencies only sent Welter between 22 and 25 potential employees each week who could fill the open positions. GM has since turned to job fairs and other means of attracting talent; however, potentially interested workers have reportedly refused the opportunity to work at the plant because of the too low rate of pay of $ 16.67 per hour. In addition, there are odd hours and the company’s policy on drug testing for cannabis.
To put the last point in perspective, cannabis is legal in Michigan. In fact, medical use has been allowed there since voters helped pass it in 2008, making it the 13th of 36 states that allow the drug to be used for therapeutic or health purposes. Recreational use is also permitted in Michigan, making it one of 16 states where it is either decriminalized or outright legal.
GM has five assembly plants in the state of Michigan, as well as several propulsion plants, metal centers and component storage facilities; you will also find its unique tooling center and battery assembly location there. However, the use of cannabis is prohibited for its employees. To complicate matters, employee drug tests are done on hair samples, which means it can trace the use of substances, including cannabis, for weeks.
Welter says that when potential candidates learn that the test includes cannabis, they simply won’t show up for the interview.
“We’re looking to hire temp workers like crazy, we just can’t get them,” Rich LeTourneau, workshop president at GM’s Fort Wayne assembly plant, told the Detroit Free Press. “Nobody wants to come to work here.”
As for GM’s position on the issue at hand, it is not as clear-cut as one might think. The automaker told The Drive that the Detroit Free Press “has distorted our position” and that “the marijuana issue is an issue that is being discussed internally at GM. Beyond that, we have no additional comments.
LeTourneau says he also attributes the shortage of workers to wages, citing pizza delivery jobs that pay $ 20 an hour, but possibly without comparable benefits. Third-party recruiting agencies not affiliated with GM have blamed the increase in unemployment benefits with an hourly wage equivalent to less than a dollar of GM’s starting rates.
Whatever the reason, more and more companies are adopting LeTourneau’s mindset that the employer should not be responsible for policing substance use, especially in a state where it does not. is not criminalized. Even Amazon made a similar announcement earlier this month.
“You have this group of candidates who know they can smoke marijuana at night rather than have a drink,” Welter said. “It’s a little silly to lose good workers. Marijuana doesn’t create the problems that opioids, cocaine and other drugs do.”
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