Wednesday, Mar 4, 2020
Charter Coronavirus Update – May 7, 2020
Opportunities for New Graduates
One group of people that has been dramatically affected by the coronavirus outbreak and the subsequent shutdowns are students. We want to pass along our best wishes to all students and particularly those who are children of Charter employees and customers. Students have lost their connection to their schools and have been forced to attend school in a brand-new way with remote teachers and limited connection to their class mates. Many students have also lost their opportunity to participate in athletics and other school activities that mean so much to them and their entire families.
As we approach the end of the school year, we particularly want to congratulate and provide our best wishes to the graduating seniors. While schools and communities are working hard to recognize these students, it is unfortunate that they are having to miss out on so many of activities related to this milestone achievement in their lives. We wanted to pass along two opportunities available for these students as they take the next step into the world.
The UA Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee has opened applications for steamfitter apprentices. Applications will be accepted from now until May 17th. Additional information is available in the attached announcement and on the Local 290 website. If you know people who are interested in a career in the trades, please let them know about this excellent opportunity. If you know of individuals who are not familiar with a career in the plumbing and mechanical trades, Local 290 and the PMCA recently funded a video and website that exposes people to the opportunities available at Choose Bigger Website. We encourage you to forward this website link and the registration information onto any young adults that may be interested. You may also see quite a few familiar faces in the video. Please encourage anyone who is interested to begin preparing their application soon as the completion date is coming up next week.
For children of Charter employees who are pursuing other opportunities, we want to remind you that applications for the Ed O’Kelly Scholarship Program for Children of Charter Mechanical Employees are open now. Applications must be completed by May 29th. The Ed O’Kelly scholarship is a competitive program that provides scholarships to eligible children who are pursuing a post-secondary education. The program offers one-year scholarships at accredited institutions in the United States, including trade schools and four-year colleges or universities. It was created by Ed O’Kelly, one of Charter’s founders and its original President. Two children of Charter employees were awarded scholarships last year. This is a great opportunity to help students pay for schooling and we want every eligible child to have an opportunity to apply. Details of the scholarship were provided with paychecks several weeks ago and are available on the Charter intranet. If you have questions, please feel free to contact one of us.
We wish all students the best as they finish up this unprecedented school year and want to congratulate all the graduating seniors.
Stay safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – May 5, 2020
SafeBuild Washington Construction Updates
The SafeBuild Alliance is a nonprofit organization with a mission of transforming workplace cultures to achieve incident-free construction projects. Charter Mechanical has been a member of the SafeBuild Alliance for many years and is a strong believer in its mission of “Zero incidents through collaboration.” Last week, the Washington chapter of the SafeBuild Alliance held an online meeting to share real-time information to help keep projects moving forward in a way that prioritizes the health and wellness of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. The video presentation, which they have graciously provided, includes perspective from owners, general contractors and sub contractors. There were several excellent ideas included that we may be able to apply at our jobs. We encourage you to watch the video available at the link below. You may even recognize some locations.
If you have come up with a great idea to complete work within the current guidelines, we would love to hear it. Please let you supervisor know or send an email to Mark Daskalos or myself a. We’ll make sure that they get to the right people and can be shared around Charter.
Stay safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – May 1, 2020
State of Oregon’s Reopening Plan
Many of you have probably seen or heard that Governor Brown has announced the start of her “Reopening Oregon” plan. A copy of the slides that she presented at the official roll-out last week are located here.
As we were all aware this will be a slow and measured process – your favorite restaurant or local shop will likely not be back to normal operation immediately and we won’t be returning to business as usual right away either. There are several details that the State government is still working out. They have not provided dates for the milestones but they did provide us with a general roadmap of what to expect. We wanted to quickly share what each phase of the reopening will likely mean to Charter and its employees.
Phase One: The timing for the first phase of the reopening will be determined by several important gating activities and some planning that needs to happen at the state level. The gates include evidence of a sustained decrease in individuals with symptoms and documented cases in the state. They also include a requirement for adequate hospital capacity and testing capacity for healthcare workers. The state must also ensure that it has in place adequate testing and contact tracing capabilities, adequate PPE for the healthcare system, and plans in place to protect critical and high-risk facilities (e.g. senior care facilities). Once these milestones are met (we expect to hear next week when they think that might happen), the Governor will begin to lift the Phase 1 restrictions.
In Phase 1, some businesses that have been closed will be allowed to reopen and socializing in small groups may be allowed. The restrictions on non-essential travel, remote work where possible, hygiene, sick employees, and social distancing will not be eliminated. For Charter and its employees most of the guidelines that we have put in place will stay in place for this Phase. We will put in place some new requirements on visitors and new/transferred employees. As testing becomes more available, we will investigate how we can utilize it to make our projects safer.
Phase Two: Phase 2 can occur 14 days after Phase 1, assuming that all the gating criteria are still met. If the number of cases or other gating items trend in the wrong direction, it is possible that the State will remain at the previous Phase or even revert to previous restrictions. At Phase 2, gathering sizes will increase, non-essential travel will be allowed, and more businesses will be allowed to open. This will allow Charter employees to conduct more face to face meetings and will allow more travel between sites. We will need to remain vigilant of social distancing and PPE requirements to avoid a reoccurrence of cases.
Phase Three: Phase 3 is once again gated by 14 days after Phase 2 and an evaluation of the gating criteria. Under Phase 3, gathering sizes will be increased further, worksites will be allowed to operate with normal staffing and businesses will have some of their remaining restrictions lifted. At this point we expect all of our employees who have been working remotely to be returning to our offices and jobsites, assuming that allowances can be made for proper social distancing. Some of our facilities and projects that have been working staggered shifts to allow for social distancing may return to more regular work hours. We will all need to continue to be vigilant on hygiene practices and the need to stay away when sick.
Planning and Execution: Next week (and/or after details of the State plan are released) we’ll be issuing our reopening plan. It will define processes and provide more specifics on the Phasing and how we will approach our work in offices, shops, and jobsites. We know that there will be changes as we work through this process and challenges that we have not anticipated. We truly appreciate the commitment of each of Charter’s employees to complete work in a manner that protects you and those around you. It is because of such efforts that we are nearing the next phase of this journey.
Stay safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 28, 2020
Charter Adapts to a new Normal
While many things in our lives have stopped or paused for the moment, the hard working men and women of Charter Mechanical are doing our best to adapt. Not many have been able to visit the fab shop in sometime; attached are samples of what they are working on. Thanks to efforts by all those in the company (site project teams, VDC/CAD, warehouse, safety, accounting) we continue to prepare for the future.
COVID-19 Joint Construction Safety Task Force
In response to the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on construction sites in Oregon, we were contacted and asked to participate on a Joint Construction Task Force, representing the Portland Mechanical Contractors Association. The task force, started by the Oregon State Building Trades Council, was created to assist construction contractors with implementation of COVID-19 mitigating guidelines in order to protect workers while continuing to service their customers.
The task force is made up of representatives from the building trades unions, including Local 290 representatives, industry partners, management, and employer representatives. We have been meeting online three times a week and scheduling visits to various construction sites in Oregon.
We are proud of the work that this task force is accomplishing and our involvement and look forward to learning from the best practices that it is collecting. Additional information regarding the task force is included in the attached press release.
Also attached is a one-page flyer created by the task force to share many of the key guidelines for individuals to minimize their exposure to COVID-19. Please feel free to share the flyer with your teams at work and with your family and friends.
As the task force makes clear, we are all in this together.
Stay safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 24, 2020
The “New” Normal
Every week there are more signs that Oregon has reached the back side of the coronavirus “curve”. The number of new cases reported every day continue to drop (Oregon Health Authority Reporting) and the number of hospitalizations and the peak need for critical care resources has passed (https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/oregon). There is mounting pressure on State governments to reopen businesses.
That does not mean that things will go back to just like they were before. Health experts warn that many of the practices that society and our teams have put in place to protect people and flatten the curve will need to remain in place to prevent another spike in cases. That means that our work will return to a “new” normal. This normal will include finding new ways to complete work under social distancing guidelines; additional and new PPE for some tasks; increased testing and tracing for individuals; additional screening for jobsites, remote meetings, and, of course, more hand washing.
We will all need to adjust and find ways to adapt to the new normal in order to take care of Charter’s people and our customers. We have started developing plans for the new normal and we know that many of you have developed methods to work safely in the new environment. If you have found a way to do work that incorporates the new work guidelines and makes work safer, we’d like you to share it. If you see areas where we need to improve to better protect our employees, we want to hear those items too. This is uncharted territory. None of us have been through this before – even some of us that are a little greyer than others. We need everyone’s help and ideas.
Please send your ideas to Mark Daskalos (mark.daskalos@chartermechanical.com) or Cordell Tietz (cordell.tietz@chartermechanical.com) and we’ll make sure that they get to the right place so we can share them. We look forward to hearing from you.
We’ll use this space to communicate out ideas and plans as we collect them. Continue to look here for additional information.
We hope you and your family are safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 14, 2020
Joint Message from UA President Mark McManus and MCAA President Brian Helm:
The UA and MCAA Presidents have issued a joint message regarding the coronavirus pandemic and its impacts to the UA membership and signatory contractors. We think it’s a valuable message and shows that as global organizations that they share and understand the challenges that we are facing locally.
Network Security Reminder:
With a number of employees working remotely, our customers, clients, partners, and vendors settling into new work environments, and updates on the pandemic coming at us all from many directions we wanted to pass along some reminders regarding the need for network security. With new working environments/situations come opportunities for confusion which hackers/spammers/phishers prey upon. Don’t fear, but please be aware.
We’re asking that you keep these things items in mind:
Charter Donates N95 Masks to OHSU:
Charter Mechanical and many of our employees have supported Doernbecher and OHSU through our year end charity event. As you are aware, healthcare professionals and facilities throughout the nation are in need of additional PPE, particularly masks. We received an order last week of backordered N95 protective masks which we utilize at times on various projects. In light of the health care crisis, we are happy to share that we (a collective “we”) donated nearly (100) N95 masks to OHSU last week. It was great to see the smile on the young lady’s face as we approached with the donation. We hope that it will help the dedicated individuals who are caring for those in need. Thanks to all.
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 9, 2020
Finances in Times of Crisis
For most of March, all of us have been dealing with the immediate effects of the coronavirus and trying to answer some very immediate questions related to the health and safety of our families and how we continue to take care of those we care about in these uncertain times.
In addition to the health concerns related to the virus, the economy has been dramatically affected. This raises some additional questions and challenges that people may be turning their attention to now, including:
These items can cause added stress to our already full plates during these challenging times.
Cordant Wealth, a financial planning firm that we have used to do employee training previously, did a presentation today that covered these questions plus others. They have generously agreed to share the presentation and information with our employees.
A copy of the information and the presentation are available at www.cordantwealth.com/bear . We hope you find the information helpful. Please be advised that Charter is not in the financial services business and the information is provided for your use but is not a recommendation from Charter.
What’s Coming up Next Week at Charter
The last four weeks have felt like a lifetime. It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of March, we were all behaving normally, fighting traffic, and going to work. We hadn’t heard of “social distancing”, had never seen a school closure (except for the rare snow day), and would not have believed that we would see a day where the Governor closed businesses and all sports would be cancelled. All of us have made it through a lot this month. Thank you to everyone for your diligence and hard work to protect your families and those you work with.
Although far from over, there are some signs that the measures that have been taken by all of us are working to reduce the numbers of people infected. Experts are predicting that the need for hospital beds and life saving equipment may peak in Oregon in a couple weeks. (https://covid19.healthdata.org/united-states-of-america/oregon) We hope that they’re right.
So, while we’ll keep focusing on ways that we can safely continue working while protecting our employee’s health and finances, we’ll also start looking forward next week; to identifying ways that the pandemic and the related shutdowns will affect our work going forward. Charter has a lot of work to do and there will be ongoing challenges. It will take all of us to accomplish this. There is no other team that we would rather take on these challenges with.
Thank you to everyone for all of your efforts and willingness to work through challenging times this last month. We hope you and your family are safe and healthy.
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 7, 2020
- We've created an FAQ which hopefully covers a lot of questions we all have regarding the current situation. Please take a moment and review here: Charter FAQs
- Here is comprehensive list put out by ENR, a construction publication, showing current state-by-state statuses
Charter Coronavirus Update – April 2, 2020
Our thoughts on continuing work during the coronavirus pandemic:
The question of whether companies should continue business operations has become a global topic over the last week or two. The basis of our decisions to date go back to the two purposes of Charter:
We’ll start with our people. One of the ways that we take care of our people is by providing good paying jobs that allow them to take care of themselves and those that they care about. We want to allow our employees to continue receiving a paycheck as long as possible. Many businesses in Oregon have been required to close and have been forced to lay their employees off. We don’t want to do that unless we’re forced to. We know that our employees count on a steady income and we want to continue to provide that as long as possible.
Another facet of taking care of our people is by making our jobs as safe as possible. We are dealing with new challenges in the methods to do this in the current environment. Some of our employees have been relocated to work from home. This is the best-case scenario where we can provide that option. Unfortunately, this isn’t an option for many of Charter’s employees. Many of our craft men and women and others in the company must go to where the work is. The experts at the CDC, OSHA and other agencies have provided new working rules to allow our work to continue safely, and we are utilizing the recommendations of these health professionals. As new information arrives, we have incorporated changes to our work guidelines and have communicated those to our work teams through multiple methods. Where work has been deemed unsafe, we have escalated these concerns to our customers and have delayed critical activities until they can be completed safely. Based on the best guidance available, these work practices allow our employees to continue to work safely. Where employees have still felt uneasy about the work environment, we have allowed them to go home to self-isolate and have worked with the Local to allow furloughs to these individuals.
We are also trying to take care of our employees by protecting them if they do need to miss work. We have begun processing Emergency Paid Sick Leave for those employees who are directly impacted by COVID-19. For those employees who qualify, we are providing up to two weeks of paid time off. The requirements for the program are included in the Department of Labor notification provided to our employees and located on our website. For employees that choose to leave or are required to leave our projects or facilities, we are working with the Local to allow furloughs. Employees on furlough are eligible to apply for unemployment insurance and should be able to receive their full benefits, plus the $600 additional benefit approved as part of the Federal Government CARES Act (please note that we do not know when this benefit will become available). When this is over, we will have lots of work to do. In order to get our great employees back to work, we have authorized a $3,000 Return to Work bonus that will be given to all employees who are subject to a shutdown of a jobsite or facility that lasts two weeks or more.
The second purpose at Charter is to take exceptional care of our customers. Charter has worked with most of our customers for many years. Our customers are building critical facilities that serve the global semiconductor markets, regional transportation providers, and regional water supplies. It is important that we continue to work with these partners to build the facilities that they depend on. Further, the customers we work for have been industry leaders in improving safety for construction tradespeople. They have been our partners for many years in building safely and continue to be during these unprecedented times.
We hope that this helps explain why we are continuing to work on our projects. We will continue to communicate with you through our website as things continue to change. If you have specific questions, please let us know.
I want to thank all of you for your efforts during this challenging time. These are unchartered waters for all of us. We appreciate your work to allow us to continue to build safely.
Families First Coronavirus Recovery Act – Paid Sick Time:
Effective April 1st, Charter is paying employee sick time to employees who qualify under the act. Included is a summary of the act and the situations that are covered under the paid sick time. If you have a situation and are curious if it qualifies, please contact your supervisor.
Families First Coronavirus Response Act Information
Charter Coronavirus Update – March 23, 2020
All,
Today Governor Brown issued an executive order related to staying at home, social distancing and the closing of certain retail business. Here are some key points from the order as it relates to Charter and our work.
What does this mean to Charter employees?
For employees who are planning trips over spring break or the weekend, there are additional restrictions in place limiting these activities. Please be aware and review these prior to departing on any trips away from home.
In closing, we will continue to do everything possible to allow our people to continue to work and to take care of our customers. These added restrictions will certainly make many of those tasks more difficult. We appreciate the challenges that everyone has overcome to date and know that we will overcome these latest requirements as well.
Stay safe,
Cordell
Charter Coronavirus Update – March 16, 2020
All,
We have made the decision today to have some of our employees work from home. This is a difficult decision and not one that we have come to easily. In times of crisis, we look to come together and unify. Unfortunately, the nature of these most recent challenges are forcing us to separate. Our business is one that requires hands on work to complete the tasks that we accomplish for our customers. Many of our employees will continue to come to work to complete those tasks. Having others work from home is contrary to our shared commitment to support everyone who completes the work. But, the guidance is clear. The more people that aren’t out contacting others, the better off we’ll all be.
Unfortunately, working from home is not an option for most of our employees. The protection of our employees who will stay at work is equally important to us. With this in mind, we are asking you to take the following steps to increase distancing and contact between you and others at work.