The pandemic has created unexpected difficulties for the manufacturing sector. Over the last few months, the PPC Government Affairs team has focused its efforts on both advocating for PPC members in collaboration with the broader paper industry as well as researching and posting on the PPC website the keys rules and regulations needed to operate in this environment.
Taking Action
The first task going back to early March was to help members and the industry as a whole qualify for essential workforce designations. The lack of a clear federal mandate necessitated the states in turn taking the lead and developing their own criteria. Working with a coalition of paper industry trade associations, we were able to provide legislators the needed information on the critical nature of our industry and assist in obtaining those designations.
Since then, there have been a number of similar initiatives focusing on the many problems our members face in opening and maintaining their operations as required by state and federal governments. One, the safety of the workforce during the pandemic, has been of paramount concern. PPC’s virtual meetings, along with the posting of key rules and regulations on the website, have afforded great opportunities for the sharing of problems and practical solutions and best practices to meet those regulations.
Current Initiatives: Liability Protection and Travel Bans
Recently, the PPC Government Affairs team has been working on supporting two initiatives –liability protection for manufacturers and travel bans impacting critical technical support workers. Liability protection seeks to provide a safe harbor for manufacturers who follow government guidelines relative to COVID-19 protection in the workplace. This effort is supported by our industry as well as other industries led by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
Travel bans prohibiting travel from certain countries have prevented technical expertise to come to the U.S. and assist boxmakers. Production equipment manufactured in other countries often has long lead times and requires specialized personnel to travel to the U.S. to complete the installation process. Efforts in conjunction with our association partners have highlighted this problem, and it has been noted that a number of U.S. embassies are using national interest exceptions to allow for this travel in the interest of increasing productivity and benefiting our economy.
Updated information on these topics will continue to be posted on the PPC website.