Manufacturers Take Steps To Protect Employees

Employees at Tyson Foods in Albertville say there are positive cases in their workplace.

Marshall county continues to be the coronavirus hotspot in north alabama.

It has 53 more cases than madison county at this hour.

Chicken processor wayne farms makes up about 30 percent of those cases.

And now - employees at tyson foods in albertville say there are some positive cases as well.

Waay 31's will robinson-smith joins us live in albertville.

He worked to learn more about the situation at tyson foods.

Around the world - planes are sitting dormant on tarmacs.

That means parts manufacturers, like brown precision in huntsville, are also much quieter than normal.

To-date, through the end of last week, we're down 46 percent in our revenue from last year.

Greg brown is the co-ceo of brow precision.

He says they've been able to stay afloat because they machine parts for medical implants and recently filled an order for ventilator casings.

But... on the aviation side, it's just crickets.

Add to the fact that we were doing a lot of work for the boeing 737 max, which is currently grounded.

Because they're an essential business - and still working thanks to money from the paycheck protection program, they've put a lot of focus on employee safety.

We're lucky.

We have 80,000 square feet, 140 people so it's really easy for us to stay separated.

We've brought in companies to spray and sanitize everything.

Will robinson-smith another way brown precision is working to keep its employees safe is by eliminating the need to open doors with their hands.

Instead, they engineered this foot grip right here, where all an employee has to do is pop their big toe in, give it a good pull and walk on through.

They've also staggered shifts.

That way if someone with the monday-through- wednesday crew gets sick, they can rely on the thursday- through-saturday folks.

I have to tie in with people here that are working on the other side of the shifts, so we can know what's going on, what i'm going to be coming into on the days where they're off.

Brown says manufacturers should prepare for more changes as things open back up.

I'm expecting, when we do get the guidelines that are coming from the governor sometime in the next week or two, we'll probably have to wear masks in here.

Might be a good idea.

And that's dependent on the supply, of course.

Brown says checking the temperature of his employees every day is another way to help workers feel more confident coming in each day.

Tyson foods told me its doing the same things at plants across the u-s.

Reporting