By Patrick Anderson Journal Staff Writer
Rhode Island manufacturers are proving their value in the fight against the novel coronavirus by quickly pivoting production to masks and hand sanitizer and securing 60,000 nasal swabs.
They are doing it in response to a call for critical supply help by Gov. Gina Raimondo last week, but at a time when industries across the economy are being slowed or shut down, these shifts also help ensure they stay open for business.
So far, manufacturers have largely avoided the hit other industries have taken from the COVID-19 crisis, and in some cases are hiring.
Construction has also largely kept moving in Rhode Island while some places have shut down job sites to prevent the spread of illness.
Josh Block, spokesman for Gov. Gina Raimondo, said Monday that she is “not considering” any new restrictions on the manufacturing or construction sectors “at this time.”
On Monday, construction industry companies and labor unions sent a letter to Raimondo outlining the steps they have taken to make sure job sites are safe and don’t need to be shut down to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The steps include having superintendents greet all workers arriving at the site to see if any shows signs of illness, setting up hand sanitizing stations, allowing a maximum of two workers at a time to ride elevators and canceling the lunch trucks so workers don’t congregate.
“Other than Boston and San Francisco, most of the country, if not the entire country, have pared down to essential work only, and most construction projects are being considered essential,” Michael Sabitoni, president of the Rhode Island Building & Construction Trades Council, told The Journal on Monday. “Construction is unique in that we don’t crowd together too often.”
In Massachusetts, where Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday ordered non-essential businesses to close their physical facilities, construction and manufacturing are mentioned frequently in the lengthy list of exemptions even if they aren’t one of the major categories of essential industries.
“Most manufacturers are still operating,” Dave Chenevert, president of the Rhode Island Manufacturers Association, told The Journal on Monday.
Along with a distiller making hand sanitizer and Honeywell making masks, he said at least one unnamed jewelry maker is working on making a part for masks.
The Manufacturers Association supports Department of Homeland Security guidelines to keep almost all manufacturers operating in an emergency, said Chenevert, who founded Swissline Precision Manufacturing in Cumberland.
If the state did close down manufacturers, Chenevert said, it would be very difficult to ever get customers back from places that stayed open. On the flip side, he said, the current challenge of using oversees suppliers has created an opportunity for domestic manufacturers to take some market share back.
Chenevert said he spoke recently with Raimondo and state Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor about the coronavirus crisis and keeping manufacturers open.
What did he take away from the discussion?
“I have not gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling,” he said. panderson@ providencejournal.com
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