(UPDATE: UAW president calls move back to work ‘too risky’ for employees)

FLINT, MI -- General Motors has notified some skilled trades and management employees that they need to return to work next week to help prepare for a restart in production.

GM said in a mass message to members that the company “is actively preparing plans to safely restart our operations.”

“Although we have not locked in a firm restart date, we have been meeting with government officials, sharing our safety protocols with the UAW, verifying that suppliers can support our plans and ensuring we have the right resources and safety equipment for our plant,” the message says.

“During the week of April 27, we will not run regular production. However, leaders may call back a small group of people to support our restart planning."

The message comes in the same week that the UAW told local union leaders to start discussions with GM plant managers across the country in anticipation that they will “resume production schedules in the near future.”

Jim Cain, a GM spokesman, said Thursday, April 23, that “a lot of planning is underway to safely restart production.”

“That includes notifying some team members (primarily salaried and a small number of skilled trades) that we may need to them to report to work soon. But we have not announced a restart date,” Cain said in an email to MLive-The Flint Journal.

Cain did not immediately say how many employees are being asked to return to work on preparations next week.

A UAW spokesman said in an email to The Journal that safety of workers is the primary goal of the union.

“As you know, President (Rory) Gamble has said the health and safety of members comes first. The only litmus test should be whether it is (safe) to send your own family member, your own son or daughter, into the plant and be certain they will come home safely,” the statement says.

GM announced March 18 that it was shutting down its manufacturing operations in North America due to market conditions, to deep clean facilities and to continue to protect people from the spread of coronavirus. The suspension in production was to last until at least March 30 and has been reevaluated week-to-week since.

Last week, the company told employees in another weekly message that they should expect new safety precautions when they return to work, including completion of a health questionnaire and temperature screening before re-entering plants. The company also expects workers will wear safety glasses and GM-provided, medical-grade masks and should expect new protocols for social distancing, the same message said.

GM has manufacturing plants in Ohio, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, Indiana and Kansas, but its operations are most concentrated in Michigan.

The company has plants in Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Bay City, Orion, Brownstown Township, Romulus, Warren and Lansing.

Only parts plants like GM’s Customer Care and Aftersales facility in Burton, where four employees have tested positive for COVID-19, have continued to operate during the coronavirus emergency, as well as retooled plants in Kokomo, Indiana, where it is producing ventilators, and Warren, where it is manufacturing face masks.

UAW tells local GM unions to get ready to work ‘in the near future’

GM says new safety protocols will be used to restart plants ‘when the time is right’