Ram has contracted outside investigators to discover the source of a noose found hanging at the manufacturer's Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in Michigan. Initially found in late February, the noose is the second racist incident at the facility since late 2017, Bloomberg reports. Both occurred after the number of hourly workers at the plant increased from 3,000 to 7,000 employees.

This episode comes on the heels of other racially charged incidents at Ford and General Motors plants, making racism a hot-button issue for manufacturers as well as the United Auto Workers union. The UAW held a conference last week in Detroit and made the anti-xenophobic initiative a top priority. The union made a collective resolution stating, "A rise in recent years of incidents targeting people based on their race, gender, immigration status, or religious beliefs is impossible to ignore and requires an aggressive response."

Furthermore, after the noose was found between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 22, an anonymous Facebook post was made on the UAW Local 1700 page, reading:

“We must speak up and speak out when we are aware of heinous discriminatory acts being committed by co-workers. Fear-mongering through race-based attacks and antics should not and will NOT BE TOLERATED AT SHAP [Sterling Heights Assembly Plant].”