Issue #2 – Many U.S. companies are helping – here’s what some of them are doing

Tuesday's World Events   —   Posted on March 31, 2020

During Monday’s Coronavirus Taskforce Press briefing at the White House, President Trump asked several business leaders to speak about the work their companies were doing to produce medical supplies and equipment in the fight againsy the coronavirus.

President Trump introduced the following leaders by saying, “Joining us this afternoon are CEOs of the great American companies that are fulfilling their patriotic duty by producing or donating medical equipment to help meet our most urgent needs.  What they’re doing is incredible.  And these are great companies.”

• Darius Adamczyk of Honeywell
• Debra Waller of Jockey International
• Mike Lindell of MyPillow
• David Taylor of Procter & Gamble
• Greg Hayes of United Technologies Corporation

The following is excerpted text from the briefing:

PRESIDENT TRUMP:  And I just want to tell all of you that America is very grateful to you and what you’ve done.  An amazing job you’ve done, and we thank you very much.

I’d like you to come up and say a couple of words, if you might, about your companies.  Mike, come on up.  Come on up, fellas, please.  Come on up.  You have to say what you’re doing because it’s been really incredible.

Go ahead, Mike.

MIKE LINDELL, MY PILLOW:  …What MyPillow has done — we’ve established an internal task force, which is monitoring future needs of companies across the country as a result of this pandemic.  And given our position, we’ve begun to research and develop new protocols to address the current and future needs of U.S. businesses across multiple sectors, how companies are going to prepare themselves when they once again open up, and changes to their current operations in order to adjust to future threats and pandemics.

MyPillow has designated some of its call centers to help U.S. companies navigate the many issues that resulted from this pandemic.  We’ve dedicated 75 percent of my manufacturing to produce cotton facemasks.  In three days, I was up to 10,000 a day.  By Friday, I want to be up to 50,000 a day.

I proud to manufacture our products in the United States, and I’m even more proud to be able to serve our nation in this great time of need.  Thank you, Mr. President, for your call to action when — which has empowered companies like MyPillow to help our nation win this invisible war. …

DARIUS ADAMCZYK, HONEYWELL:  First of all, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, the entire administration, and all the agencies, thank you for your strong leadership during this time of crisis.  It is noticed and it’s making a difference.

Second of all, I’d like to say a big thank you to all the healthcare workers out there.  You’re putting yourself in harm’s way every day, and we really respect what you’re doing, and we couldn’t be thankful enough for it.  And I can tell you that more help is on the way.

We, as Honeywell, we’re an industrial technology company.  And one of the businesses that we’re in: We protect the industrial worker.  But what we’re doing today is we’re repurposing a lot of that equipment to serve the healthcare worker.

A few days ago, we announced the start-up of a new manufacturing facility in Rhode Island.  We’re going to be hiring 500 employees.  We have already 200 onboard.  And we’re going to be starting the production of N95 masks within the next two weeks.

Furthermore, today we’re announcing the start-up of another manufacturing facility in Arizona.  We’re going to be hiring another 500 people.  And we’re going to be starting up production in that facility by the middle of May.  So, in total, we’ve doubled our production of N95 masks already.  It’s going to double again within the next 60 days.  And then within the next 90 days, we’re going to have 5x the capacity we do today.

Furthermore, we’re going to be providing other safety equipment to support all the efforts going out.

Lastly, I’ll say a big thank you to all the Honeywell employees, and also announce a $10 million fund for them, for all the hourly and administrative employees who are having a hard time during this time of crisis.

Thank you, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Fantastic.  Thank you.  Normally, I’d shake his hand, but we’re not supposed to do that anymore.  So, that’s okay.  Great job.  Thank you to Honeywell.

Please, go ahead.  Debra, please.

DEBRA WALLER, JOCKEY:  Thank you, Mr. President and Mr.  Vice President, on your guidance during this unprecedented time.  And I’m very honored to be here today.  Founded by a minister 144 years ago, Jockey International is a family-owned company headquartered in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  Since 1876, we have been providing socks and underwear for generations of families.

It is part of our DNA to roll up our sleeves and help our country in her time of need.  During World War Two, we made parachutes for the military.  And today, we are eager to serve this great country by providing support for the healthcare workers on the frontlines of this fight.  As the President and Vice President have said, it’s a whole-of-America approach and we are committed.

Jockey has had a longstanding partnership with Encompass Group, headquartered in Georgia, serving the healthcare community.  When we learned of the critical need for PPE [Personal Protective Equipment], we knew we had to help.  That meant restarting production on tier three isolation gowns.  Monumental lifting by Jockey, Encompass, FEMA, and the FDA was done in just a few days to be production ready.  As a result, we expect to begin delivering 30- to 50,000 gowns per week, helping those that need it the most right now.

In addition, this week we are also donating 10,000 units of scrubs to the frontline doctors and nurses at the Javits Convention Center in New York City.  We would not have been able to do this without the collaboration of the administration, representatives from the federal agencies, and Congressman Bryan Steil.

Thank you very much, Mr. President and Mr. Vice — Mr. Vice President.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.

MS. WALLER:  Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT:  Fantastic job.  Thank you very much.

DAVID TAYLOR, PROCTER & GAMBLE:  Thank you, Mr. President and Mr. Vice President, for bringing us together today.  I’m proud to be able to represent the men and women of Procter & Gamble, who every day, 24 hours a day, are working to build and make essential cleaning products, hygiene products, and healthcare products for families everywhere.  These include healthcare workers and for institutions that are serving those on the frontline.

P&G people are the faces of brands you know and trust — brands like Tide, Pampers, Bounty, Charmin, Mr. Clean, and Vicks.  In addition to making, packing, and shipping these essential items, they’ve worked together to transform our plants to make things we’ve never made before, like hand sanitizers and facial masks.  Some of these are already getting to national, state, and local agencies.  Some of them are in the hospitals already.

Everywhere around the world, P&G people are working every day to serve everybody — consumers.  And they’re working together to bring together the full capability of our research and development, our engineering, our manufacturing, and our communications capability to make sure we make a difference to the consumers we serve and to all the audience that we can make a difference to.  I want to thank them and I’m very grateful for what they do every day in service to others.

Thank you, Mr. President, Mr. Vice President for bringing us together today.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

Please.

GREG HAYES, UNITED TECHNOLOGIES:  Mr. President.  Good afternoon.  I’m Greg Hayes from United Technologies, and on behalf of the 240,000 employees of United Technologies and the 70,000 employees at Raytheon, which will join together with UTC this Friday, I want to first of all say thank you to the President and the Vice President for your leadership during what is really a war.  It is a different war than anybody has ever fought before, but it’s a war that we’re uniquely qualified to help.

As one of the world’s largest defense contractors and some of the best technology, we’re using that technology to try and solve some real-world problems.  Today, we’re working with the Air Force to try and help pilots as they’re moving medical evacuees with the COVID-19 virus, such that they can be protected and that the patients can be protected.

Again, we’re working also with logistics.  And if you think about a war, strategy is important, but logistics wins war.  It’s — it’s imperative, I think, with FEMA, along with the Mr. Navarro’s office, that we coordinate all of these activities.  Last week, we donated about 90,000 pieces of personal protective equipment to FEMA.  Next week, we’ll have another almost million.  Again, working through our supply chain partners around the world.

We’re also today — this week, beginning the manufacture of face shields.  Using the additive technologies that we have and the machines that we have available within UTC, we’ll be able to produce approximately 10,000 shields in the next four weeks — again, all needed equipment.  We stand ready to help in any way we can.  We don’t need the Defense Production Act to ask us to act.  All of the people at UTC and Raytheon are focused on this war and winning it.

Again, I also want to say thank you to all of our employees for their work during this crisis, as well as to the frontline medical and other first responders.  Thank you very much.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Thank you.  Fantastic.  Great company.  Those are great companies.  Thank you very much.   …..

(See entire video at the White House youtube page.)