密歇根新闻广播 保护汽车制造商免受病毒侵袭

 

Automakers and their suppliers are back at work in Michigan. Ford², GM, Fiat-Chrysler and other manufacturers have been working with the United Auto¹ Workers, government, and health experts to avoid potential spread of COVID-19.

Not everybody going back to work feels safe.

We’ve been told by health experts again and again that social distancing, face masks, gloves, and hand washing will help us avoid COVID-19. As workers go back on the factory lines, some are worried.

“Well, I think it's dangerous to go back, you know,” said Jason Peek³. He has worked at GM’s Delta⁴ Township automotive plant for seven years. He says he knows the union and the company have been working together to make the assembly line safe.

“And they said they've addressed some of the social distancing issues, but I'm not really sure how we can do our jobs because there's many of our jobs where you're right in front of someone. Like, in the door line, in door assembly, you literally⁵ stand right, right across from somebody. You know, you're maybe a foot two feet from that person and around your face know all day long,” Peek said.

For people working close to someone else, all the automakers are providing masks and either goggles⁶ or face shields, depending on the job.

Steve Delaney is the President of UAW Local 602, the union workers at the Delta plant. He says the way assembly lines are set up does cause concern.

“Because there's places on the line where people are working literally shoulder to shoulder, touching⁷ the same part, pushing the same buttons, using the same guns, and there's thousands of them. I mean, we can clean intervals⁸ in between shifts, but there's no way you're going to keep people from touching the same equipment,” he explained.

Workers will be screened. They’re to use an app to answer questions about their health each day before going to work. Their temperature is taken at the gate. But, the coronavirus can be spread by people who don’t show any symptoms of COVID-19.

Gary Johnson is Ford Motor Company’s global Chief Manufacturing and Labor⁹ Officer. He’s already worked to get plants safely running in China and Europe. He says here the automakers are doing everything the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization recommend.

He acknowledges that some jobs mean working closer than called for by social distancing guidance.

“The key for us is that is having the right material on to protect yourself and employer crossing you if you're inside that six feet, so the mask and the glasses and the goggles or the shield will be the critical part of that,” he said.

Most of the assembly line workers will not be wearing latex or nitrile gloves. Johnson says research shows workers are actually safer using the specialty¹⁰ work gloves required for handling sharp metal parts that they already use.

“What's interesting about that is that people have the gloss¹¹ that they think they're going to be protected and they actually touch themselves more often and a lot of medical industry is actually tested that themselves. So that's why we're not making latex gloves like that, a mandatory¹² requirement. It's more about the hand-washing and the facial protection,” Johnson said.

The question is whether the protections put in place will be enough to reduce exposure to COVID-19. Will workers keep their masks on all the time? Will they avoid congregating¹³ during breaks? Some of the workers are skeptical¹⁴ about the risks associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. How will they behave?

The only way to know if the precautions are working is to watch whether workers start getting sick.

Steve Delaney with the UAW says they’ll be looking out for that.

“So if people start getting sick, if it looks like the numbers are rising, the UAW is going to aggressively pursue that and force them to shut down. I don't know what the threshold will be, but they're going to be watching very closely,” he said.

A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds the majority of Americans working outside of their homes are concerned about being exposed to the virus and infecting the people at home.

Protesters, some conservative politicians, and right wing media say an even larger concern is the collapse¹⁵ of the economy.

1 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

2 Ford   

n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过

参考例句：

• They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上，所以我们只能涉水过河。
• If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪，必须极度小心。

3 peek   

vi.偷看，窥视；n.偷偷的一看，一瞥

参考例句：

• Larry takes a peek out of the window.赖瑞往窗外偷看了一下。
• Cover your eyes and don't peek.捂上眼睛，别偷看。

4 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 goggles   

n.护目镜

参考例句：

• Skiers wear goggles to protect their eyes from the sun.滑雪者都戴上护目镜使眼睛不受阳光伤害。
• My swimming goggles keep steaming up so I can't see.我的护目镜一直有水雾，所以我看不见。

7 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

8 intervals   

n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息

参考例句：

• The forecast said there would be sunny intervals and showers. 预报间晴，有阵雨。
• Meetings take place at fortnightly intervals. 每两周开一次会。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 specialty   

n.(speciality)特性，特质；专业，专长

参考例句：

• Shell carvings are a specialty of the town.贝雕是该城的特产。
• His specialty is English literature.他的专业是英国文学。

11 gloss   

n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰

参考例句：

• John tried in vain to gloss over his faults.约翰极力想掩饰自己的缺点，但是没有用。
• She rubbed up the silver plates to a high gloss.她把银盘擦得很亮。

12 mandatory   

adj.命令的；强制的；义务的；n.受托者

参考例句：

• It's mandatory to pay taxes.缴税是义务性的。
• There is no mandatory paid annual leave in the U.S.美国没有强制带薪年假。

13 congregating   

（使）集合，聚集( congregate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The spatial distribution patterns of larvae and pupae are congregating distribution. 幼虫和蛹的空间分布均为聚集分布。
• He says victims of violence are congregating there because they feel safer. 他说暴力的受害者聚集在这里因为他们觉得更安全。

14 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

15 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。