Butzel Long attorney Raul Rangel quoted in the Detroit News article, "Pressure to restart auto industry grows, but it faces major hurdles."

As COVID-19 cases show signs of flattening even as deaths continue to rise, pressure is intensifying to restart the economy in Michigan and across the country.

Michigan CEOs, medical professionals and labor leaders are consulting Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, she said Wednesday. And President Donald Trump hosted a call with top executives of the nation's four automakers and other industrial firms to push preparations to reopen the economy as early as next month.

The moves come as stay-at-home orders have grown to cover most Americans and as revenue-starved businesses cut back, forcing millions to lose their jobs. In few places is the pain more acute than Michigan, an industrial and politically vital state that is among the nation’s leaders in jobs lost so far.

"This is an unprecedented event in modern automotive times, even if you look back to World War II," said Stephanie Brinley, principal analyst at IHS Markit Ltd. "The plants still operated and things still came out of it. Your workforce wasn't sidelined."

Click here to read the complete article in the Detroit News.