German Autoworkers Discover Bimmers, Booze and Bongs Don't Mix

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

If you end up purchasing a BMW 3 or 4 Series model build at the automaker’s Munich assembly plant in early march, just know this: two of the workers building it might have been high as a kite.

A report in today’s Bild newspaper claims that two workers were so blitzed on booze and synthetic marijuana that they passed out while working on the assembly line, causing a temporary — and costly — shutdown. Yes, this happened, BMW has confirmed.

The two gassed workers apparently made it almost to the end of their shift before hitting the deck.

In response to the report, an embarrassed BMW confirmed to Deutsche Welle that the employees had indeed consumed “copious amounts of alcohol” and the aforementioned fake weed before putting their best efforts into building premium sedans and coupes. An ambulance was called, while production has halted for 40 minutes.

Assembly plants are a well-oiled machine, and any delay can lead to big bill for wasted time. Well, that’s what happened here. By keeping the previous night’s party going, the two workers cost the automaker approximately $1.06 million, according to an anonymous source — hardly a dime-bag expense.

The Bild report claimed that one of the two workers was subsequently fired, while another was shuffled off to another plant.

BMW’s hooch and reefer incident is reminiscent of a similar event at Fiat Chrysler’s Jefferson North assembly plant. Back in 2010, 13 workers were fired after being filmed smoking up and drinking while on break. Two years later, those workers returned to their jobs. Union dues sometimes pay off.

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Frank Galvin Frank Galvin on Mar 21, 2017

    Ah, weed on the job. Worked in a hospital kitchen during HS and early college. Good pay - but damned if we all didn't blaze up before, during, and after work. What do you want to bet that lower and middle managers were reaching for their vapes after having to explain how it came to be that Dieter and Hans were on that line.

  • Moparmann Moparmann on Mar 21, 2017

    Good, CLEAN help is hard to find!! :-)

  • -Nate -Nate on Mar 21, 2017

    Now I have to go bu those books mentioned . . -Nate

  • Pwrwrench Pwrwrench on Mar 27, 2017

    2nd for A Savage Factory. Or it could be done similar to my last employment. Those on the 'drug test' list that were privileged characters were given 2 weeks notice to abstain. The "random" tests arrived by mail with an employee name on them. When it was one of the aforementioned they were told to stop whatever and get an OK test. Of course the ironic part was nowhere was there tests to measure whether people were doing their job correctly, beyond filling out the paperwork/computer forms. So someone could be putting out very substandard work, but if they never tested positive for 'drugs' that was okay.

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