It Begins: Fiat Chrysler Worker Comes Down With Coronavirus in Midwest

A day after the World Health Organization declared the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, an employee at Fiat Chrysler’s Kokomo Transmission Plant in Indiana tested positive for the virus.

This marks the first time a Detroit Three autoworker has contracted the illness, though the automaker claims the plant remains up and running. The employee, who remains unidentified ( The Detroit News claims it’s a salaried UAW member), is reportedly receiving medical treatment.

In the wake of Thursday’s news, FCA stated that it “placed into home quarantine his immediate co-workers and others in the facility he may have come into direct contact with.” A faintly pleasing scent of disinfectant should hang over the birthplace of so many four-, six-, and eight-speed transmissions from now on, as the automaker quickly announced a strict cleaning regimen.

“Additionally, the company has deep cleaned and disinfected his working area and is deploying additional sanitization measures across the entire facility, retiming break times to avoid crowding and deploying social spacing,” FCA said in a statement.

As reported by the Detroit Free Press, yesterday’s pandemic declaration pushed FCA to switch to video conferencing for meetings. Only the most “business critical” meetings will take place in person. Meanwhile, visitors to all FCA facilities in the U.S. will find themself subject to new rules, and that’s after they secure permission from a company bigwig to appear on the premises.

The coronavirus-stricken employee raises the specter of Hubei-style plant shutdowns in America’s manufacturing heartland — a scenario not outside the realm of possibility, but one both the country and its domestic manufacturers would nevertheless like to avoid. Kokomo, Indiana is home to four FCA plants.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler]