By: Robert Glowinski, President & CEO of the American Wood Council
First and foremost, we wish that all of you, your families, friends and employees stay protected and healthy, and your companies continue to enjoy safe operations.
When the year started, I thought my work plan would be predictable and consistent: work with our Board to keep ensuring marketplace access for wood products, minimize unnecessary government regulation on manufacturing, and find better ways to advance the message around the carbon benefits of wood. Although each of these remain important, as you can imagine, my priorities shifted quickly.
The Coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic has had a rapid and dramatic impact on our lives, both personally and professionally. Right now, as I write this column from home, we have closed our primary office locations in both Leesburg, VA, and Washington, D.C. to meet three different stay-at-home orders covering the D.C. metro area where most of our staff are located. Our field staff have always worked from home. However, for many in our industry, working from home is not an option.
The forest products industry – from mills to material suppliers – have fortunately been recognized as an “essential” industry to continue providing critical infrastructure to the country while we fight to flatten the curve of COVID-19. As the voice of the wood products industry, especially here in Washington, AWC has been working on your behalf as the Administration and Congress work to develop COVID-19 policies and provide needed assistance, all in real time.
There are several activities on the federal level we want to ensure you’re aware of as you work to keep construction supply lines open.
Essential Workforce
AWC worked with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to ensure wood products manufacturing and suppliers were classified as “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce.” The CISA list, now on version 2.0, was only released as “guidance,” but since its issuance many states have referenced it as mandatory within their jurisdictions. That is generally good for the industry, although we are aware that a number of states have chosen to issue their own lists excluding wood products and construction.
We have been working with a number of our companies to monitor the proliferation of state orders while providing factual information about the CISA list and its integration of exemptions for supply chains. If you’re in a state still considering such orders, we would encourage you to share the CISA list with your state’s Governor, local officials, and emergency planners. It appears that reference to the federal guidance may provide you with support to justify keeping your facilities operating, hopefully in a COVID-19-safe manner.
Facility Safety Guidance
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has released updated “Guidance on Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19” as an extra precaution. The guidance outlines steps workplaces can take to reduce workers’ risk of exposure, as well as how an outbreak may affect workplaces. We would recommend it to you.
Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have additional guidance on safe manufacturing operations during the COVID-19 outbreak. The guidance includes recommendations on what to do if an employee is suspected of having COVID-19 or when a workplace quarantine would be warranted.
Federal Aid
The President has declared a national emergency that opens the availability of more federal aid to states and municipalities facing economic threats from the virus. The declaration also allows for use of more resources in directly combatting COVID-19.
On the legislative front, the President has signed an emergency supplemental appropriations bill that includes tax credits for paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave, as well as enhanced unemployment insurance, expanded food assistance programs, and increased federal fund for Medicaid. Further legislation is expected to address relief for various affected industries and an overall economic stimulus. And, the Small Business Administration has announced the availability of disaster assistance loans in designated states and territories affected by COVID-19.
At the same time, another stimulus bill is being discussed on Capitol Hill, and AWC is in communication with a number of congressional offices to see how we can help focus any future funding on high return activity, such as national infrastructure needs and policies supporting jump-starting the supply chain.
Stay Safe
For those who have the ability to allow a hopefully brief break that keeps your workers at home, we thank you for contributing to “social distancing.” For those companies that are keeping the construction supply lines going, we wish you safe operations and continued healthy workers.
Repeating how I started, and most importantly, AWC hopes all of you, your employees, and families stay safe.
