Covid-19 Shutdown Info for employees

Hello everyone!
It’s been a long anxious road waiting out the COVID-19 shutdowns. Hopefully you’ve all had some quality time with your families (and hopefully not TOO much). And more than that I hope nobody in our crew or their families has gotten sick.
A few of you have reached out to ask about us opening back up, so we have a bit of an update. At this point, the shutdown order has been extended yet again to May 15th, which would put our first available open day May 18th. At this point, we’re planning to bring back the full crew on the 18th. That said… Gretchen Whitmer has hinted that she will likely extend the shutdown again, and that even if she doesn’t, she may re-shutdown the state if numbers of infected rebound like they are expected to. So unfortunately, there’s still not a lot of certainty in sight. But, there is still hope.
We have received an opportunity from one of our larger customers to open as an essential supplier to them. They have requested certain jobs be produced. If you’re not aware, responsibility for whether a company can be open or not passes up the chain of supply until it hits the state for approval. We cannot work without one of our customers having approval from the state. So now that we have permission to produce, we are bringing back a very limited crew on Monday, the 3rd. The downside is we can only bring back the essential crew to work on those specific products. On the upside, this gives us a chance to get back on our feet so we can bounce back from the shutdown. We will bring back people as they are specifically needed for the permissions we have, but everyone can expect to be welcomed back once the shutdown is over.
Being back at work does not mean the virus is gone, And we are developing a plan to be extra vigilant with our cleaning and health processes. That will be posted soon. In the meantime, please make your best effort to acquire a mask/bandana for yourself, as they will be required to return to work. We will have VERY few for those that can’t bring their own. The state is setting strict rules for us to follow, and we don’t mind enforcing those rules, because we want to keep our crew safe.
Keep on Keeping on, and if you need anything please reach out to us.

Hello everyone,
Thanks for bearing with us during this confusing time.
Yesterday, everyone should have received a text that said not to apply for unemployment yet, and that more info was coming soon. Here’s the story about that.
As you all know, we had a meeting yesterday, where we discussed that we were included in the governor’s executive order to shut down. We also asked that you wait for us to get the duck’s in a row before applying for unemployment. At about 2:00, one of our larger customers informed us that they would be remaining open (surprisingly) and that they had the ability to “deputize” us and give us the authorization to stay open as a part of their supply chain. From that info, I sent out the text. We got our hopes up that maybe we could re-open the next day. We did not want to call everyone back until we had written proof, and “hall passes” for our employees to get to and from work.
This morning we got the official statement that they were closed down as well. Unfortunately, there is at this time no option for us to be open.
We are working hard to get an exception if we can, but the odds aren’t good.

During this shutdown, lets each strive to make it worth it. If we have to do it, we might as well do it the full extent, so that we don’t have to do it longer, and more people survive. Stay home, stay away from people, wash your hands, and clean your house.
Its no fun, but we’ll get through this whole thing. We have plenty of work waiting for us when we get back, and I look forward to seeing you all in three weeks.

Thank you for waiting to file for unemployment.
This should go much smoother for you and us because you waited.
As you know, Kay takes a lot of pride in crossing her T’s and dotting her I’s when it comes to taking care of our payroll. As of now, she has gone through the state’s recommendations and protocols on unemployment for the shutdown. Heres what we know:

1 – The “last day worked” date needs to be today, the 24th. if you apply with your date as the 23rd, you will be asked by the unemployment office to show that you are actively applying for jobs at other places in order to receive benefits.
2 – We have informed the state that we have placed everyone on Furlough, nobody has been fired, or laid-off. All Y’all are welcomed back as soon as the state lifts restrictions (as far as we know now). This qualifies you for unemployment, and you should have a smooth time now that we have informed them.
3 – the shutdown was announced as being for 3 weeks. We were told to state 45 days as the time window for unemployment paperwork. Best we can guess, this is so that there’s an overlap, and nobody is left without it.
4 – There’s a form that you will need. ITS LOCATED AT THE BIG BLUE BUTTON BELOW. I’ll also email it to everyone. If you don’t get it, let me know. many of you did not update your forms, AHEM…..
5 – You are free to apply for unemployment now. Thank you for being patient! 🙂

If anyone has any questions, feel free to call or text me. My number will be sent out in a text, and in the email. If I don’t have the answer, I’ll do my best to get it for you.