5 factory workers making masks and face shields describe long hours, hectic shifts, and pride in protecting frontline healthcare workers
- America's factory workers have been working around the clock to produce masks and face shields that frontline healthcare workers desperately need.
- Five workers in factories across the country, from Florida to Maine, told Business Insider their jobs have grown busier and more hectic than ever during the coronavirus pandemic.
- They described long shifts, strange hours, and new efforts from their employers to keep workspaces clean and provide masks and gloves.
- Some workers said they were worried about catching the virus at work, while others said they were simply relieved to have a stable job amid the economic crisis.
- All of them said they were proud to be using their skills to make essential products that could save lives.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
For Jerry Miller, a factory worker in Illinois, the decision to switch from making farm equipment to producing face shields for frontline healthcare workers felt personal.
The John Deere assembler knows exactly how painful it is to lose a loved one to an illness like the coronavirus. His wife Jen, 38, died two and a half years ago, after nearly a decade of illnesses, surgeries, and medical complications.
Miller told Business Insider that watching news stories about coronavirus deaths has been painful for him — particularly when he sees images of body bags stacked up in refrigerated trucks, or buried in mass graves. He said he can't imagine the devastation families must feel when their loved ones die of COVID-19 alone, unable to say goodbye.
Just several weeks ago, Miller went from manufacturing farm equipment to assembling face shields out of foam, elastic, and plastic sheets for doctors and nurses to wear over their masks.
He's one of scores of workers across the country who are mass-producing America's masks and face shields, working long hours and often grueling rotations to produce vital equipment amid a nationwide shortage.
Five workers in factories from Florida to Maine told Business Insider how their jobs have grown busier and more hectic than ever during the coronavirus pandemic. Most of the workers have had to learn a completely new skill — their factories pivoted from making items like hoodies or carseats to making medical equipment.
Some told Business Insider the moment was bittersweet, saying they were frightened about potentially catching the virus at work. Others expressed relief that they were employed at all amid an economic crisis that has cost 22 million Americans their jobs.
All of them said they were proud to be using their skills to make essential products that could save lives.
'I'd love for the country to know that blue-collar industrial American workers are standing tall and proud with the other workforces deemed essential'
Miller has not only been assembling the face shields, but also personally delivering some of them to local healthcare facilities. He recalled delivering an order of 100 face shields to a nursing home, and seeing a woman burst into tears when he arrived.
Miller said he's been working six days a week to produce the face shields, and the factory has been pumping out roughly 15,000 per day, churning out each one in about 30 to 40 seconds.
The frantic pace is familiar for one Lydall worker in New Hampshire. He requested anonymity but Business Insider verified his identity. The worker said he has been working 13-day rotations and receiving just one day off in between.
The employee is a pulper helper who works late nights creating air filtration media that forms the protective base in products like face masks and respirators. His job consists of throwing 50-pound bags of fiber into a machine that's essentially an "industrial-sized blender."
"Because we make this media, and cleanliness and air filtration demand is so high, orders are coming in fast and furious for all kinds of stuff," he said. "My day-to-day duties haven't really changed much, I'm just at work more often than not now."
The Lydall worker said he feels relieved to be working so many hours, since other workers across the country are enduring layoffs and shutdowns.
He also said that while doctors, nurses, and first responders are being rightly praised for their work treating coronavirus patients and saving lives, he wanted to see factory workers like him get some recognition, too.
"I'd love for the country to know that blue-collar industrial American workers are standing tall and proud with the other workforces deemed essential," he said. "We want to battle this global tragedy in the best way we can."
Some of the workers have been horrified by reports that their local hospitals have been rationing or reusing personal protective equipment.
Adam Cleaves, a worker at the Maine textiles company American Roots, said friends of his who are nurses told him directly about the shortage in personal protective equipment (PPE).
"That's just not right, in my opinion, and it hurts me to hear some of the stories from them firsthand of what they're going through at work," Cleaves told Business Insider. "I know that even though my job seems trivial or the company I work at really is only a drop in the bucket, you know, at least we can help fill that bucket as far as need goes."
Cleaves usually makes fleece products like hoodies, jackets, and scarves, and his company had to lay off 80% of its workforce back in March — but then they re-hired them immediately after deciding to switch to producing PPE.
The company started out producing face shields, but have also begun working on masks and other medical garments.
"When an emergency comes and hits us at a national level, we all need to find our little ways to pitch in, especially the ones that can pitch in," Cleaves said. "We should be able to do our part."
Workers say their factories have been doing deep cleanings, staggering shifts, and providing hand sanitizer and masks
All five workers Business Insider spoke to said their employers had put health and safety rules in place to prevent workers from getting sick, including providing masks, hand sanitizer, gloves, and spacing out workstations six feet apart.
Cleaves said American Roots came up with a particularly elaborate system of staggering start times, breaks, and end times, to prevent employees from all rushing to punch in at the same time, or sitting down together in a small cafeteria.
The company also gave employees trainings on proper hand-washing techniques and how and when to safely change gloves.
Brian Whiteley, a plant manager at the Ohio company Evenflo, which makes carseats, told Business Insider his workers have pivoted to creating plastic components to be used in face shields. Whiteley said the factory had to implement new sanitation rules, and said the company is following social-distancing guidelines form the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"We went in and reorganized and restructured our assembly cells and our assembly lines to accommodate that social distancing so we can continue to go ahead and provide an essential product," Whiteley said.
Johnny Phrathep, a lead operator for Madico Window Films, said he and his colleagues are working rotating 12-hour shifts, creating face shields 24 hours a day. The machines they normally use to cut window film are now being used to cut up massive rolls of laminate, producing roughly 5,000 shields per shift.
Phrathep said he sometimes worries about getting sick, but noted that his company provides masks, gloves, and the face shields to wear. His colleagues have also been staying six feet apart from one another to reduce the risk of passing around illnesses.
He said it felt gratifying to be able to rapidly produce equipment that hospitals can use immediately.
"I'm excited. You're helping out the world," he said. "It's pretty cool — a lot of the companies have to wait for six weeks to get them made, whereas we can just do it right now."
Do you work in a factory that manufactures PPE, ventilators, or other essential products? Reach out to the author to share your story at mmark@businessinsider.com.
Read the original article on Business Insider