Pinellas manufacturer S.S. White protects workers, provides jobs in mask initiative

What started as an effort by a Pinellas County manufacturing company to protect its own workers from Covid-19 has turned into a broader safety and jobs initiative.

Rahul Shukla

S.S. White, which specializes in aerospace parts and medical instruments, is tapping its design and production expertise to make cloth masks for its own workers and their families, for local medical organizations and for employees of other manufacturers.

After using some of its own workers initially to make the masks, S.S. White now is hiring temporary labor, said Rahul Shukla, president and CEO.

“I feel I need to do my part,” said Shukla, who relocated the company to Seminole from New Jersey about two years ago.

Related story: Aircraft and medical manufacturing firm moves to Seminole, hires 80

He credited his late father, a journalist in India, for instilling in him a belief in doing the right thing.

Because of his father’s profession, Shukla said he is a news junkie and was keeping a close eye on media reports as the early cases of Covid-19 began mounting. When there were 4,000 cases, Shukla knew he had to act.

“I called a meeting at the plant and said this is going to get very bad, and we should start taking measures,” Shukla said. He said he was driven by a sense of urgency. “The difference between doing things successfully and not is your sense of urgency.”

Over the course of just a few days, S.S. White revamped its operations. Non-manufacturing employees were allowed to work from home. At the plant, workspaces were rearranged to create a minimum of six feet of distance between workstations, a single shift was broken into three shifts, and the company announced a $30 a day appreciation bonus for production workers. Bathroom fixtures and door handles were changed to become contactless, and the badge reader system was revised with proprietary software to allow employees to clock in and out hands free.

The company installed additional hand sanitizers and bought a big supply of disposable gloves, but could not find cloth masks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain, such as grocery stores and pharmacies, and especially in areas of significant community-based transmission.

To protect S.S. White workers, Shukla asked for help from Subra Naglapura, vice president of operations at S.S. White.

“We can make aerospace parts that help a 787 land safely. We can make medical parts. I said, design a mask. In one day we designed a washable mask,” Shukla said.

The company makes 50 to 75 masks a day, and after making enough masks for its 125 workers, S.S. White is continuing to make masks for others.

S.S. White makes about 50 to 75 masks a day.

“We will continue to give them out to any local medical institution, any local business that needs them,” he said. “A doctor called me and said, ‘What is the price, I want to buy some.’ I said the price is zero dollars and zero cents. We are going to give them away. We are not going to charge any money.”

S.S. White also is producing masks for another local manufacturer, National Molding, which makes products for the medical device industry, including a seal for a potential vaccine for Covid-19.

About 15 of S.S. White’s 125 workers have been working on the masks since April 6. But with strong demand for the company’s aerospace and medical products, S.S. White’s HR manager, Sheryl Sheppard, plans to hire 15 to 20 temporary workers at $11 an hour to make the masks so its permanent employees can get back to the production line.

“Making masks is not difficult. We can quickly train anybody,” Shukla said. “We are hiring people with some sewing experience, who have used a sewing machine. We purchased five sewing machines and five employees brought sewing machines from their homes and we are buying more. We know this is temporary. In a month or so, the country will have more masks than we need, at which time we will raffle the sewing machines to our employees.”

S.S. White also has a plant in India, where it employs 350 people and makes components for its own manufacturing operations. India currently is in the third week of a complete lockdown.

“I was talking to our county commissioner in India and he told me there are some people who are very poor and need help. I got permission from him to open our plant in India. We purchase food items, like rice and flour and oil, and then we made small kits, enough to last for 15 days, and we went to areas where very needy people live and we distributed those kits,” Shukla said. “The commissioner asked me, ‘Why did you say yes when I requested this’ and I said, in my small way I want to do whatever I can.

“I complain a lot about how our government did not show a sense of urgency, but I think if I do the right things myself, then only I have a right to complain.”

The S.S. White plant in India put together food kits for the poor.