UAW President Rory Gamble said Thursday the labor union does not support sending factory workers back into the plants in early May, as some automakers have suggested.

"We feel it's risky at this point in time. I'm not comfortable with an early May return," Gamble told the Free Press. "We don't see a solid opinion from medical doctors or scientists that it is time to reopen society. You've got to understand, in a manufacturing environment we can put a lot of protocols in place that will help mitigate the spread of the virus but it's almost impossible to practice 100% social distancing.

"Our members are going to be working in this type of environment for a long time with the threat of infection hanging over them."

His concern applies to plants nationally, not just Michigan, he said.

General Motors confirmed early Thursday that it plans to send some workers into its plants next week to prepare resuming production. Fiat Chrysler said April 6 it was pushing its reopen goal to May 4. The automaker, which is based in Italy, has experienced the most reported COVID-19 deaths of hourly workers from U.S. auto plants. Its U.S. factory workers have been vocal in reaching out to report death, illness and plant safety concerns in recent weeks.

UAW Ford workers have said they've been told May 4 is a possible restart date, too.

"We are in opposition to the May 4 date," Gamble emphasized.

Kelli Felker, a Ford spokeswoman, noted that no decisions have been made.

"Ford and the UAW continue working closely on initiatives to keep our workforce safe when we restart our plants," she said in a statement to the Free Press. "We are continuing to assess public health conditions, government guidelines and supplier readiness to determine when the time is right to resume production."

Labor and company officials have been meeting to try to figure out a path to resume production.

"Right now, the companies have agreed to every safety protocol. But the overall scientific data does not support an early start," Gamble said. "All our workers are concerned. We do have members who want to go back and we have a lot of members who don’t want to go back."

Fact is, quite a few blue collar workers have health conditions related to manual labor that makes them more vulnerable to the disease, he said.

"I'm happy with the companies' response to our talks in regard to health and safety protocols in the facilities," Gamble said. "But the thing that has mitigated the virus is social distancing. The numbers are still at an alarming rate. You still see spikes in places. I'm not comfortable at this point in time with our members going back into the workplace."

While the shutdown has been devastating to the economy, he said many of the 150,000 or so hourly UAW members who work at the Detroit Three genuinely fear for their safety.

No question, the companies contractually have the right to resume production, he said.

"But manufacturing has not been deemed essential," Gamble said.

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"We actually started discussions with the companies weeks before we actually got them to go down. We saw the pandemic coming," Gamble said. "We were struggling with them as information was coming in, because the narrative was very fluid. It changed daily. That had a big effect on our talks with the companies related to the virus."

He said he supports stay-at-home measures advocated by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has said publicly her discussions with the manufacturing sector have been ongoing. Whitmer's stay-at-home restrictions apply till May 1, though she has said there may be extensions. The union supports longer restrictions so that once people get back to work, they don't need to worry about another disruption.

Gamble said the UAW supports all governors who extend the stay-at-home orders.

"Our members need to hear precise information about the threat of the virus, what is the action plan to combat this thing and whether or not they'll be safe. Right now, we don't see that as being solid enough to return to the workplace this early," Gamble said.

In the days prior to the shutdown, there were reports in factory settings of sick and scared workers that, in at least one case, resulted in a conflict on a factory floor so serious that it shut down operations.

More than two dozen UAW autoworkers have died after being diagnosed with COVID19.

"You can take this thing home and it'll run through the house," Gamble said. "It is a very scary, deadly disease. I've lost personal friends, like many of us, that I've talked to on Saturday and they were gone by Wednesday."

At issue for the UAW, Gamble said, is the hourly and salaried workers, vendors — everybody who enters plant facilities.

"The companies have been very receptive," he said. "The big part that is challenging is the lack of testing in this country. So it's very hard to gauge what you're up against."

As vice presidents from the UAW meet with Ford, GM and FCA, concerns about an early start continue to be expressed, Gamble said.

He emphasized, "They have a right to schedule and we have a right to defend our workers and make sure our members are safe. We intend to defend and fight for safety of our members. I believe these companies have a mindset that they want the workers to be safe. But we have to be shepherds of our members. We know there's pressure to get the economy back up. But we feel rushing back into the workplace is risky."

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: at 313-222-6512 orphoward@freepress.com.Follow her on Twitter@phoebesaid. Read more on Ford and sign up for our autos newsletter.