Michigan Factories Humming, Lockdowns Ease

DETROIT (Reuters) - Factory workers began returning to assembly lines in Michigan on Monday, paving the way for major automakers to restore thousands of jobs across North America after more than six weeks of a coronavirus lockdown. With millions of Americans thrown out of work and economic activity cratering, a growing number of states are ending the strict lockdowns that were put in place in March and April to slow the spread of the outbreak. Some auto suppliers in Michigan, a Midwest industrial powerhouse hard hit by the pandemic and its economic fallout, reopened plants on Monday with skeleton crews to get ready for the planned May 18 restart of auto production.