Leaders of UAW Local 600 at Ford Motor Co.'s Dearborn Truck Plant said they filed a written grievance against Ford on Sunday asking the company to idle the plant for two weeks.

Burkie Morris, UAW plant chairman at the Dearborn plant, confirmed the filing of the grievance.

It also asks for enhanced sanitation and cleaning in the plant, while some workers talk about walking off the job there over fear of coronavirus.

“It’s just the level of concern of workers in the plant," said a UAW Local 600 leader, who asked to not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media. "People feel they’d be safer if we all were not at work right now.”

Ford assembles its top-selling F-150 and Raptor pickups at Dearborn Truck Plant. The 2.6-million square-foot facility employees 4,400 people, according to Ford's website. It runs on three shifts.

At Ford's Romeo Engine Plant, Randy Lashbrook, UAW plant chairman, said, "Our members are looking to leadership to put health and safety ahead of the almighty dollar.”

A Ford spokeswoman said the company had no plans to idle the plant and she declined to comment on the grievance.

"We are continuing to act in real time to keep our people safe and help limit the spread of the virus in communities where we live and work," Kelli Felker said in a statement. "We have already instituted a number of measures in our plants including providing additional supplies of hand sanitizer and sanitizing wipes, encouraging social distancing, suspending self-serve options in cafeterias, and monitoring our workplaces closely. ...

"If a member of our workforce tests positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus, we will close the building for 24 hours to cleaning and disinfecting. If there are three cases confirmed in a building, we will close it indefinitely so its status can be assessed and rectified."

Get control of the situation

The Local 600 grievance was filed the same day as the UAW and the Detroit Three car companies announced they formed a COVID-19/Coronavirus Task Force to provide more protection to workers in warehouses and factories.

As part of that announcement, UAW President Rory Gamble said, "All options related to protecting against exposure to the virus are on the table."

The grievance asks Ford to shut the plant down until the coronavirus pandemic is brought under control, said the leader who asked that his name not be used.

"The people are very concerned," said the leader. "They see a lot of schools and other workplaces being shut down and a lot of people feel Ford should shut down the plant as well to get better control over this situation."

The local UAW leaders have had "a number of discussions" about how to best protect workers safety given they perform jobs that cannot be done remotely like many of Ford's salaried workforce, he said.

On Friday, Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles asked those employees and contract workers who can work remotely to do so for the near term.

A similar request came out of Ford's Louisville Assembly Plant. Herb Hibbs, UAW Local 862’s building chairman for Louisville Assembly Plant, said in a letter to workers that he has received “thousands" of calls and/or emails from worried workers about coronavirus, according to published reports.

Hibbs called for closing the plant for two weeks as a preventative measure. Ford produces the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair SUVs at the plant.

The Catch-22

One worker at Dearborn Truck Plant told the Free Press he and his coworkers favor shutting down the plant to help reduce the amount of contagion. The worker asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing his job.

The workers know the plants have to keep manufacturing so that Ford makes money and they keep their jobs, but they are scared, he said.

“We’re in a Catch-22," said the worker. "But how is the company going to remain profitable if all their workers get sick?"

He said Ford has a 30-day supply of pickups on the lots and workers can make up lost production in future overtime.

"I feel like the dollar is more important than my safety and my family’s safety and that’s what most people on the floor feel like," said this worker.

The local UAW and workers at Dearborn Truck Plant said enhanced cleaning is going on, but not as much as many people would like.

"When you have 4,000 people in close proximity every day it’s still very concerning," said the local UAW leader.

More:UAW and Detroit automakers take action to protect hourly workforce

More:UAW: 'Extreme measures' needed at auto factories amid coronavirus scare

Genuine worries about health, safety

At Ford's Romeo Engine Plant, Lashbrooksaid about 600 members of Local 400 on site “are not quite in panic mode“ but they’re genuinely worried about their health and safety working in close proximity on the assembly line.

“We have members out here who have elderly parents, who have children at home. I have single parents here,” Lashbrook said. “They’ve ordered 30 hand sanitizers here and we have five, with 25 on back order for our facility."

For now, he said, Ford has posted a bulletin that the plant shuts down for 24 hours if three people in the facility are diagnosed. “God forbid that does happen, the rest of the employees in here will have been interacting. In my opinion, it’s too late.”

He won't push for a wildcat walkout because it would jeopardize job security, he said. “I’m just looking at somebody to make the call. Put some pressure on the team at Ford Motor Company to do the right thing. Are they going to put people on temporary layoffs?”

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter.