Monday, April 27, 2020

Pennsylvania polypropylene plant "live-in" concludes

Cool Washington Post story covering the Braskem America plant in Marcus Hook, PA that did a 28-day live-in (previously covered on the blog here):
In what they called a “live-in” at the factory, the undertaking was just one example of the endless ways that Americans in every industry have uniquely contributed to fighting coronavirus. The 43 men went home Sunday after each working 12-hour shifts all day and night for a month straight, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials that will end up in face masks and surgical gowns worn on the front lines of the pandemic. 
No one told them they had to do it, Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich said. All of the workers volunteered, hunkering down at the plant to ensure no one caught the virus outside as they sought to meet the rocketing demand for their key product, polypropylene, which is needed to make various medical and hygienic items. Braskem’s plant in Neal, W.Va., is doing a second live-in now.
Glad to hear these folks getting the media coverage they deserve. 

3 comments:

  1. I hope the media coverage ensures these folks get the pay they deserve!

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  2. The article states that they got paid for 24h/day, plus some extra. Well deserved in my opinion.

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  3. I had the opposite reaction to this article. This factory produces ~0.4% of the world's PP and even with the huge surge in mask production (up ~10x, mostly in China), less than 1% of all PP produced is used for masks, and there remains a huge glut in the market. Their plant could have been nuked with zero impact on mask production, especially since east coast PP is unlikely to be exported to China. I perceive this story more as a warning as to how management can use a good patriotic or sap story to trick workers into behaving like slaves.

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looks like Blogger doesn't work with anonymous comments from Chrome browsers at the moment - works in Microsoft Edge, or from Chrome with a Blogger account - sorry! CJ 3/21/20