General Motors has called in hundreds of laid-off workers to its Arlington assembly plant this week to finish building its current truck model for customers and “to maintain critical business priorities,” the company said Monday.

The company expects the work to last through the week and said the temporary call-in doesn’t affect any GM locations outside Arlington, the automaker’s largest assembly plant. Workers who volunteered will return to layoff status once the week ends.

GM was one of many automakers to shut down North American manufacturing after unionized workers raised concern about their potential exposure to the new coronavirus. The fast-spreading illness also caused consumer demand to come to a complete stop.

“As employee safety is our priority, Arlington Assembly put in numerous safeguards, including but not limited to thermal temperature scanning, individual questionnaires, additional personal protective equipment and cleaning crews, and limiting work to one shift per day for social distance,” GM said.

Workers at the Arlington plant received a notification late last week that GM was looking for volunteers to return to the plant for a week or less of work, according to a message shared to United Auto Workers Local 276′s website.

“Although we cannot choose if members volunteer or not, we ask that everyone think of their safety, and their family safety first before making any decision,” UAW leaders said in a post on the website. “This is on a volunteer basis only and the refusal of such work will not impact your ability to get unemployment or your ability to maintain employment at General Motors.”

GM Arlington employees received notice that they would be laid off effective March 23, just a day before Tarrant County issued a shelter-in-place order requiring employees of nonessential businesses to stay home due to the spread of COVID-19. GM has closed its plants until at least March 30.

Ahead of local restrictions placed on auto manufacturers, UAW president Rory Gamble told union members in an email in mid-March that GM and other automakers had pushed back against the union’s request to halt production, according to The Associated Press.

On Friday, President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act and ordered GM to produce ventilators desperately needed by health care workers combatting coronavirus across the country. GM said it already was working on a plan to make the life-saving breathing devices.

A GM plant in Kokomo, Ind., is starting to produce the devices, which could be ready for delivery by mid-April.

Dom DiFurio. Dom is a staff writer covering breaking business news. He writes about the companies and transactions that shape life in North Texas. Dom considers himself among the many transplants that moved to Texas from the crowded coasts who found more than enough reasons to call it home.