19 May 2020

Workers in Defense & Weapons Industries Are Raising Concerns Over Workplace Safety

Mesa is ground zero for a large military-defense- industrial complex. 
Unlike other cities there are no reports in the media over workers testing positive for the COVID-19 virus. 
Issues reported elsewhere are not public here

DEFENSE WORKERS, DEEMED “ESSENTIAL,” PROTEST CONDITIONS AS OVERSEAS WEAPONS SALES CONTINUE


May 18 2020, 4:00 a.m.
WITH MOST OF the United States on lockdown in late April, the State Department approved billions of dollars in possible weapons sales. Workers at the manufacturing plants that would supply those sales, deemed “essential workers” toward the end of March thanks to the defense industry’s sprawling lobbying apparatus, have been forced to show up to work — even as a number of workers at those factories have tested positive for coronavirus. 
The transactions approved by the State Department include $2.2 billion in possible weapons sales to India, Morocco, and the Philippines, and $150 million in blanket funds to the United Arab Emirates for order requisitions to repair and support aircraft fleets and do other related work.  . . 
The facilities in question belong to some of the world’s largest defense contractors, like Lockheed Martin and Boeing. At Lockheed Martin’s plant in Forth Worth, Texas, workers have protested the reopening of their facility, saying they were concerned about exposing family members to the virus, and that the company wasn’t properly cleaning facilities. Other workers have said that steps being taken to mitigate risk don’t go far enough. Asked about the spread or potential spread of Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, at their plants, the contractors generally demurred and declined to answer questions, instead referring The Intercept to company websites, many of which have stopped publicly reporting Covid-19 cases. 
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