Carpenters Help GM Start Production on Life-Saving Ventilators

When our country needed ventilators to fight COVID-19, our union carpenters & millwrights stepped up and helped CCC & GM renovate an old office space in Kokomo, Indiana.

Less than a month after agreeing to make life-saving ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, General Motors Corp. says production has begun at its facility in Kokomo, Indiana.

How did GM safely transform an old car factory office space in less than a month? They utilized Commercial Contracting Corporation and a workforce trained in Infection Control Risk Assessment (ICRA) from the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters.

IKORCC carpenters and millwrights earn ICRA certifications and take special courses in addressing the spread of contaminants released above ceilings, inside walls, or under floors during construction.  ICRA involves control of many factors including air pressure differentials, anterooms, medical facility awareness, effective communication, and personal protective equipment.

Carpenters and millwrights completed the demolition of the former office space, laid flooring, built walls, and installed equipment and workstations for ventilator production, taking the necessary steps to comply with infection control protocols.

A month later, production has begun on the much-needed ventilators and carpenters are busying converting another space for ventilator production.

“It feels good to know you have helped America in this time of need alongside your union brothers and sisters,” said IKORCC millwright Codey Stevens.

The ventilators are being produced under GM’s $489.4 million contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, requiring 30,000 ventilators for the Strategic National Stockpile by the end of August and 6,132 by the end of June.

This is one of dozens of vital projects the IKORCC is working on to help during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since its onset, carpenters have built testing sites, converted hospital spaces into COVID units, created negative pressure overflow units outside hospitals, donated PPE to local hospitals, and more.