COVID-19 Safety Concerns Shut Down American Apparel in Selma
From the West Alabama newsroom–
A Selma plant temporarily shuts down due to health concerns after two workers come down with COVID-19.
American Apparel shut down operations Thursday morning due to health concerns caused by COVID-19.
Chuck Lambert is the company’s President and CEO.
“We’re going to pay our people today and tomorrow and we’ve already sent everybody home,” said Lambert. “We will have commercial cleaning come in tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock is what I’ve been told. And we will mist and clean the entire plant. Even though it’s not required, we’re doing it.”
The company passed out a letter at the end of the day Wednesday notifying employees that a worker had tested positive for COVID-19, but there was no need to worry, because the infected person hadn’t been at the plant for over 12 days.
But workers weren’t convinced the plant was safe. So, they staged a walk-out over their concerns Thursday morning.
“I have underlying health issues, I have asthma, I have congestive heart failure. And I’m concerned because I have a young son at home. He’s at home being quarantined from school because they don’t want him to get it. But I’m his parent. I’m going out there. I can take it back to him,” said Brindle Gordon.
“We putting ourselves in danger trying to make them a dollar,” said Norma Kennedy. “We got families we have to go home to. It’s too many people in there getting sick. If she handle some work, I have to handle it behind her. Somebody else got to handle that same stuff behind me.”
“Why would ya’ll put our life in jeopardy just to make a dollar?” asked Janice Peterson. “Ain’t nothing right about that.”
Company officials made the decision to close and deep clean the plant — after health officials officially confirmed a case of COVID-19 involving a second worker at the plant.
“We can’t go on rumor. We have to go on fact. And once we got the facts, we reacted,” said Lambert.
American Apparel is working to supply 187,000 masks to the U. S. Army — for soldiers working on the front lines in COVID-19 hot spots across the country.
