Hello Team. It’s Wednesday, March 25, and I am taking this opportunity to provide you with a brief update. Because many of you are working from home and our network bandwidth is important to our continued operation, we are delivering today’s message by podcast rather than a large video file. This is just one small example of how we continue to adapt our business operations to ensure your safety and communicate with you while at the same time continuing our important mission. I can report that there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at Electric Boat.
Yesterday we announced an update to our EB airline shuttle schedule. While we are encouraging employees to maximize the use of video and teleconferencing, we recognize that some business can only be achieved in person. For example, we have people working in Cape Canaveral to validate the strategic weapon system that will become part of the Columbia Class submarine. From time to time, we need to bring our people down to complete certain testing and other work that cannot be done from Groton. To support this important work while balancing the safety of our employees, the EB Flight Department is making changes to their shuttle service. Please see the announcement on Homeport for details of these changes.
At EB, we are preparing to screen anyone with access to our facilities. A critical part of our ability to screen is the availability of non-contact, or point and shoot, thermometers like you may be seeing on TV. We have a very limited number of these thermometers and the ones we have are in the hands of our medical teams in Groton, New London and Quonset Point, where they belong. We are trying to get more, and as you can imagine, those thermometers are in incredibly high demand. We’ve determined that using what we have to screen thousands of our people would cause lines at each of our gates and people would be gathering in large numbers while they waited, which is not consistent with guidance for social distancing, as you well know. So, we have determined not to implement screening until we can do it properly and quickly and protect each other as much as possible. This makes it even more important to monitor your own condition and make sure you stay home if you are sick or exposed to someone who is sick. I will keep you updated on screening as the proper equipment becomes available.
As a company, we are doing what we can to help the community through the donation of supplies and mutual support. We are in constant contact with state and local officials and emergency managers, as well as with our partners in SUPSHIP and at the SUBASE. In my conversations with some of you today, you asked what else you could do to help. Here are several ideas. Many regular volunteers at local food banks are staying home, and these vital organizations are in need of assistance with preparing and distributing packages. If you are interested and able to volunteer, please contact your local United Way.
The Red Cross is in severe need of blood donors as many regular blood drives have been cancelled. In fact, our EB sponsored blood drives have been cancelled. If you are able, please consider making an appointment to give blood.
We are sending out business updates via email, Homeport, posted hardcopies and EB Landing.
We have been fortunate in ensuring each of us remains healthy. From my perspective, our actions to date are working. I am asking each of you to stay patient and continue your commitment to keeping the entire EB family and your own families safe from the virus by doing your part.
Please continue to ask yourself two key questions each day:
• Have you had close personal contact with anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID-19?
• Are you experiencing any symptoms? Fever? Chills? Cough? Sore throat? Shortness of breath? Body aches?
If you answer YES to any of the above questions, please get the proper care, stay home to protect your teammates and your community, and contact your supervisor.
Thank you and please stay healthy and safe!
Kevin
