Election Day is a holiday for Detroit 3; GM and Ford seek volunteers for some production

[Pelican Press 0]

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Election Day is a holiday for Detroit 3; GM and Ford seek volunteers for some production

Election Day is a negotiated day off in the UAW’s 2023 national contract with the Detroit Three automakers, creating a company holiday Tuesday so employees can make it to the polls.

Salaried workers also get the day off, but at General Motors, spokesman Kevin Kelly said, “We are exploring running some voluntary shifts at a few plants.”

Seeking volunteers is not new, Kelly said, noting GM has done it on past Election Days. He declined to specify which plants may run Tuesday.

At Ford Motor Co., spokeswoman Jessica Enoch told the Free Press, “Ford’s U.S. manufacturing facilities will not run production on Election Day, with the exception of Kentucky Truck Plant, which will run with voluntary overtime. Federal Election Day is a holiday for Ford’s U.S. salaried employees.”

Voting booths.

She said Ford has honored Election Day as a holiday since 1999.

At Stellantis, spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said the down day will have “no impact to operations outside the U.S.” The company did not say whether the automaker is seeking volunteers to keep some production going.

But a down day might help, given that Stellantis, which makes Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram and Fiat brands, has been struggling to manage its inventory levels, particularly in the ******* States in recent months. It has paused or adjusted production at various plants in response.

Employers are not legally required to provide time off so employees can cast their ballots, but a growing number of companies are offering paid time off to do so. According to Time to Vote, a business-led, nonpartisan group working to get people to the polls, about 2,020 companies have pledged to give their employees at least a few hours off Tuesday to vote.

According to an article this week by

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

, for the first time, furniture company Ikea will give its employees who work 20 hours a week or more two hours of paid time off Tuesday to vote.

Public support has grown over the years for companies to ensure that employees have time off to vote. Earlier this year, a survey from the

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

found that 72% of U.S. citizens supported making Election Day a national holiday. That is up from 65% in 2018. It found that 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans favor it.

More: Workers at GM pickup plant authorize strike over managers working assembly line

More:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: *****@*****.tld. Follow her on

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. Read more on 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

 and sign up for our 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

. 

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press:

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

#Election #Day #holiday #Detroit #Ford #seek #volunteers #production

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up

This is the hidden content, please

• Sign In
• or
• Sign Up