43 Pennsylvania workers voluntarily lived in a factory for 28 days to mass produce PPE materials

(Image credit: AP Images/ Matt Slocum)

last updated 27 April 2020

Dozens of Pennsylvania workers are finally returning home after four weeks of critical coronavirus-fighting work.

On March 23, 43 workers stepped into the Braskem petrochemical plant with nothing but a 28-day shift ahead of them. They ate, slept, and worked 12-hour shifts in the factory, and emerged Sunday with millions of pounds of raw PPE material to show for it, Philadephia's ABC affiliate WPVI reports.

No one at the factory was told to stay and work nonstop, Braskem America CEO Mark Nikolich told The Washington Post. All of the workers volunteered to go without seeing their families, save for an occasional drive-by wave, to mass produce polypropylene. Demand for material has skyrocketed, as it's used for personal protective equipment such as masks and gowns essential for keeping health care workers safe as they treat COVID-19 patients.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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