Safety Issues Arise At Ohio Ultium Cells Plant
14
Sponsored Links
As GM Authority previously reported, production of GM Ultium batteries at the GM Ultium Cells LLC plant in Ohio was temporarily halted due to a concern with the facility’s emissions equipment. Although this issue seems to have been quickly resolved, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union is raising concerns surrounding the safety of workers at the Ohio plant.
According to a report from Bloomberg, the UAW points to several instances where Ultium Cells plant worker safety wasn’t prioritized, and is demanding better safety protections following multiple incidents. For example, one worker was sprayed with poisonous gases while working with electrodes, while another witnessed an employee disposing of toxic materials in a garbage can.
It’s worth noting that it’s currently unclear if this recent development comes as a direct result of the temporary closure of the Ohio-based Ultium Cells plant, which is jointly operated by General Motors and LG Energy Solution.
“It’s not just the low pay, these jobs are often dangerous,” UAW President Shawn Fain commented in a prepared statement. “This is our defining moment. It’s time to build an EV industry that puts workers first.”
Notably, the UAW and Bernie Sanders claimed that the wages at the Ohio-based Ultium Cells plant are unacceptable back in April 2023.
Of course, this comes as the UAW is in the midst of contract negotiations with the Big Three. In fact, the jointly operated Ultium Cells plant is not a part of current contracts, which only serves to further complicate future negotiations.
“A competitive, forward-thinking collective bargaining agreement can provide a model for unionization of other U.S. battery cell manufacturing plants and extended electric vehicle supply chain,” Ultium Vice President Tom Gallagher was quoted as saying.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM business news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Sponsored Links
I’m sure there are two side to the story.
Health and Safety definitely the highest priority, not production performance.
Set proper PPE, training, recurring training, proper tools, it should be GM’ responsibility.
Even with human factor involve, there are always other ways to prevent accidents.
I work at the plant, and safety is ABSOLUTELY NOT too priority. GM has almost no say in anything, LG calls 100% of the shots and GM caves to everything that LG says. NOTHING in the plant is being fixed right, it’s just band-aid after band-aid. The only thing that matter is numbers, whether it’s good product, or not. Whether is safe, or not…. No one cares, no one does anything. LG, GM, Ultium, UAW, OSHA… Literally no one care
There are two sides to this story. While you can find any unsafe practice at any job, it’s the employees mishandling the equipment and the hazardous materials that cause most of the safety issues. They have proper ways of handling everything and they (the employees) choose to ignore them causing incidents. I know this cause I work there and witness it all
while you may work at the plant .. these employees are doing what they are told to do. we in the lab inspect the batteries and if one fails they tell us to check it til it passes .. or the big shot passes it .. and then they wonder why we keep getting them back to check over numerous times .. this company from korea has no safety standards and they think they can get away with it . they are in MY country now learn how things are here . we are treated like we are nothing in here .. they dont trust anyone .. we have to scan our sds .. what good does that do if we have no internet /wifi to view them ..so if you are saying the employees are to blame you must be one of the managment .
This is just the start of the power play.
UAW should go strike against GM until all the issues are resolved. Maybe it’s time for lawsuits against GM over safety issues.
Maybe it’s time to scrap anything EV
You sound like an idiot. EVs aren’t going anywhere. Tesla has revolutionized the industry and others are still trying to catch up.
The worker who was sprayed with poisonous gases while working with electrodes should sew GM for millions of dollars.
Sew them a sweater?
I work there, very unsafe,I worked at a coal fired power plant for years, this place knows nothing about safety. My supervisor told me I could wear a tyvek suit to go out and test the electrolyte from the tankers, I told him, tyvek is for powders, he told me no, you can wear them over and over, just use common sense, well I wore tyvek for coal powder, and I had wore tychem for chemicals, and this man told me I was wrong. His previous employment was making cabinets, so I had to bow down to mister uninformed.
Hopefully they close the plant and move it to Mexico, like all the other plants because of the UAW
First and foremost we do not want to see any employee at this plant injured in any way, but with that said, the more problems they have with anything EV is a good thing. Soon maybe they’ll get scrapped because this is all an EV is worth, scrap
UAW up their usual bs, hopefully they shut down the plant for good