GM workers in Texas will continue to wear facemasks while on the job even after the state lifts its current mask mandate, the automaker has confirmed.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued an executive order to roll back the state’s current facemask mandate, Reuters reports, forbidding local jurisdictions from issuing fines or penalties to residents that don’t wear a face covering while inside an establishment. Despite the executive order, GM workers will still be required to wear facemasks inside the automaker’s Texas facilities – including at the sprawling GM Arlington Assembly Plant.
“We’ll keep our COVID-19 safety protocols in place to ensure we continue to protect our employees,” GM spokesman Patrick Morrissey told Reuters.
While Texas will no longer require residents to wear masks indoors while in public, many large corporations are deciding to stick with their existing mask mandates, as an outbreak of COVID-19 within one of their facilities could derail production and reflect poorly on the company. Toyota, Target and Macy’s are also sticking with their current mask mandates for employees, Reuters said.
GM sent a 40-page handbook to its employees at the height of the pandemic last year, which outlined best practices for preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. In addition to wearing facemasks and other PPE at work, GM workers are required to pass through a temperature screening before entering the shop floor and must answer a COVID-19 symptom questionnaire. Employees are also asked to sanitize their workspace between shifts and advised to stay six feet apart from co-workers whenever possible.
GM produces its own facemasks for internal use and for donation to hospitals, clinics and other places where the PPE may be needed. The automaker’s facemasks received N95 certification last year, confirming the respirators are capable of filtering out 95 percent of airborne particles in a worst-case testing scenario. GM’s Warren, Michigan facemask production has produced over four million facemasks to date.
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Comments
I hope and pray every place of business in Texas as well as the other states that’s so quick to drop the mask mandate right now follow GM lead.The incompetence of Greg Abbott and Ted Cruz actions in the past 2 weeks show just how much they care about Texasns, which is why we’re in this mess in the 1st place. Had this been handled the right way last year we might not be wearing mask now,both should Resign move to Cancun, Florida or wherever “I will be voting both of you out of office so can go learn how to be go dads Because you’re horrible representatives
Your going to make Texas blue, you must have come from California…:) Leave it to the people to make the choice and business to if they want it. Should not be a mandate, which by the way is not a law and you don’t have to abide by it.
This doesn’t have anything to do with political affiliations. This has EVERYTHING to do with doing right by Texans. How is it that Senate Members and Representatives of other states are doing more for Texas than Texas’ own Senators and Representatives? You want a job? Wear the Mask. Argument: Every work place has a Dress Code, and if you don’t follow it, so be it and your job gone.
I WAS BORN HERE B4 U WAS, I DONT GIVE A DAM WHAT COLOR YOU THINK THE STATE IS AS LONG AS PEOPLE STOP DYING AND I DONT CATCH #19
Covid is just a different kind of flu. The flu kills more people than covid. The panic is a left wing conspiracy theory used to take away our rights.
Abbott and Cruz are competent. The numbers and stats growth prove this. Just ask the companies leaving states like CA. Musk can’t stand how CA is ran. That is what they said over a year ago about the lockdowns and cloth masks which is still laughable to me. Ask anyone who has been in the military or worked in a lab what a real mask is. Cloth masks for the most deadly virus known to man, is similar to the advice the government gave to kids during the cold war. Hide under your desk in the case of a nuclear blast. Of course this comforted the masses who did not think too much about it. People have been wearing it for over a year now and here we are. Just like the flu and cold, covid will stick around. The latter has the most cases because the first two I stated are not categorized properly now due to funding and behind the scenes stuff. In fact it has always been here. Just look on the back of any of your cleaning products.
The fact is that older folks are mostly at risk if they have other problems with them. If has present health issues they are mostly impacted. If one is diabetic or pre-diabetic. If america was a healthier nation and not so fat and obese things would be different.
With all of that said, we can’t close the country forever. We are humans and not everyone of us makes it. May God on mercy on those that did loose their lives. It is not the black plague or like other actual deadly viruses that killed with impunity. The majority of us need to work to earn our keep and older folks should stay tucked away protected.
I always say it but I will say it again. This is what happens when a nation is feminized. Everyone acts on emotions and can’t see the facts nor think logically.
I hope more companies do not follow GM’s lead. They were once a world leader and coveted around the whole globe and not just the truck centric USA.
Soros is the puppeteer.
I agree with you.
I bet you wear a mask when you drive by yourself…
News to you. If you are driving on GM property you have to, even by yourself.
400,000 homes are without water to take a bath or wash clothes, he’s worried about mask mandated the rest of you or worried about the color of a State. The ones who voted me down don’t have a toilet so you don’t know water is needed to flush it, No one pays 3-400k for a home not to have water, care about the health and well being of others 1st
Quit crying and deal with it,I would hate to have to go to war with you with bullets and mortars in the air you would probably be complained about the lack of hot meals. Are all the truck stops out of business to take a shower and all the laundromats also,,can you not get on the internet and find a solar camping shower too,you have me pegged exactly I use a thing called a outhouse or technically called a pit privy borrow a shovel,hammer and saw and construct one. Have you been told it is now a crime to wear a mask,put on several of them and a n95 paint respirator too. Have you ever consider investing in a generator and some 5 gal.gas cans or propane tanks. When you say worried about the color of your state I assume you are referring to illegal immigration charity begins at home and if you have a 400k home in texas it is pretty large adopt some of them if you can fit 25 of them in an expedition, you know how many bunk beds you can fit in your garage.
The market should decide who has power and water, not Biden.
you can call him by the name his family and close friends call him the big guy perfect for him very mafioso
I hope that in light of the state’s continued abysmal Covid response and it’s self-inflicted near-collapse of it’s gas and electrical grid last month should be a rude awakening to people and news outlets continuously pushing the false idea that Texas is the epitome of the American dream. Clearly, there are too many downsides to moving to a state that pushes a virulently anti-science, anti- government, and anti-consumer protection mandate.
When corporations are more responsible than the state government, you know things have gotten out of hand.
Well companies continue to flock Texas for it being a great state for business. The statistics prove this. Not fair to judge their energy sector for an anomaly due to the weather. It would be like judging New York state a few years ago about the hurricane for their piss poor response. Which was also an anomaly situation. With that said California will continue to loose big companies. What evidence of anti-science? You do realize science thrives in that state as many men work in the defense and tech industry. Which bring in millions of dollars.
In terms of science, people do not deny the cousin of the flu virus. Which conveniently American flu cases have been down this year and last just like in the UK. If we are going to talk about science. Let us compare states that have had relaxed standards like SC, FL, TX, to those 1984 states.
GM is a pandering corporation just like any other one. So they will want the brownie points. A corporation is not a government man. I missed the new constitution that says we are a corporate democracy since we are clearly not a republic anymore.
None of the energy companies are federally regulated and none of them addressed the same technical failings (outdated tech and lack of winterizing) that occurred back in Winter 2011 because they didn’t want to spend the money. 10 years later, all the same issues occurred and more people were affected by their incompetence and lack of caring.
As for Texas’s anti-science stance – look at how the governor and his cabinet ignore basic CDC guidelines (even when Trump was in office) on Covid spread prevention, and blaming clean energy for the the grid collapse when that was not the problem.
Science is your friend? Science, the mythical liberal political and religious system that failed to prove God doesn’t exist?
wow sounds like you 2 are very unhappy with your leaders. It will probably easier to move, u-haul has very cheap rates to ILL.NY.and CA. since it is costing them money to drag there trucks back anyway.
You could have typed fewer words and just said: “If you don’t like it, then leave!” It better represents the stubborn sentiment.
IL continues to have a decreasing population and continues to be in the top 5 percentage wise for folks (mostly tax payers) leaving the state. CA people love to move to ID, CO (ruined), and TX. NY folks to NC, SC.
You mean they are fleeing there states because of there policies and then want to inflict those same policies in there transplant state? Defies common sense.
Masks are nothing more than a placebo effect.
@Chevelle454: Absolutely false. Masks are not a placebo. They are actually effective according to every legitimate non-partisan medical organization. Stop getting your fake news from Facebook and stop spreading LIES that can get people sick.
To the “geniuses” who say things like “wearing a mask is a personal choice” or “masks have no effect (placebo) [huh?]” – You really should take your heads out of….. the sand, and actually listen to someone who knows what they are talking about rather than a talking head who is pushing an agenda for their own personal (or political) gain.
YOU wearing a mask is not (completely) for YOUR protection, it is for EVERYONE else who comes in contact with you – if YOU are infected, and don’t know it and you DON’T wear a mask you are MUCH more likely to infect others.
That pretty much sums up how this whole pandemic became a PANDEMIC – imbeciles who thought they didn’t have any personal responsibility, became infected, mostly due to their lack of: logic, common sense and/or ability to think for themselves and went about their lives as if “it couldn’t happen to them” and continued to spread this virus to innocent people all over the world – because it was “a personal choice”. Ever hear of asymptomatic infection?
Finally, to the “genius” who said “Cloth masks for the most deadly virus known to man” – You should really not post your inane thoughts on here (or anywhere, for that matter).
While COVID-19 is certainly a deadly virus, it is hardly the “most deadly virus known to man”.
Unless you were referring to the various strains of Ebola (up to 90% mortality rate) or Rabies (100% if untreated) or there is Smallpox, which killed over 300 million people, in the 20th century ALONE, not to mention nearly wiping out the entire native North American population.
Maybe those were what you were referring to….. 🤔
Dave C is right. I don’t think it is too much to ask that we give a care for others and wear a mask, plus, GM is only trying protect there work force and promote safe working conditions, how is that unwise? If you think your governor and state senator are doing a great job, then there is light years between are viewpoints. I’ll stay in Michigan and know that our energy works when the temp is below freezing, like today. Where environmental concerns are a responsibility and we still have industry and beautiful land coexist.
GM has NO RIGHT to force people to wear masks! Masks cause CARBON DIOXIDE POISONING!!!!!!
It is their facility and their employees. Those employees and also those who visit have to follow it. Just like putting on safety glasses and hearing protection when going out on the plant floor.
Safety equipment costs more and consumer prices go up. Let people decide.
They have no freedom? Let them wear masks!
Well, folks I live in the United States of Reality. Ran across a picture of a group of 30 nurses back in the US during the Spanish Flu days, every single nurse was wearing a mask, go figure. In addition to your perceived rights, you don’t have the right to jeopardize someone else’s life. I feel it is a matter of respect and responsibility to honor hard working people in Michigan while they are work the line to put food on the table for their families. So in short, GM has the right and obligation to do so, if you are working unsafely, they will fire you, Period! I will continue to wear a mask and I will do so to also protect all those I come in contact with long after I am vaccinated. It is easy, harms no one and makes sense to do so until at least 75% of Americans have had theirs. And just FYI, US deaths related to all the types of flu in 2017-18 accounted for 61,000 deaths. We are at 550,000 deaths in the US related to Covid-19, hardly the same. I have the freedom to get an education, I choose to use it to think. Stay safe out there.
Maybe all the mask Karen’s can just wear 3 masks alone in their car while everyone else carries on with their life.
Texas governor is an idiot. Mask should be required by everyone its just common sense. This is not like the flu anyone who thinks so is brainwashed.