HOLYOKE – On May 22, state Sen. Eric Lesser hosted a “lunchtime livestream” with Pia Kumar, co-owner of Universal Plastics in Holyoke to discuss PPE, manufacturing and economic recovery.

Lesser explained that Universal Plastics is located in Holyoke, but has operations around the country. Kumar  Lesser explained that Universal Plastics is located in Holyoke, but has operations around the country. Kumar noted that Universal Plastics is a family business, which she runs with her husband Jay. While the business manufactures plastic parts for a variety of industries, Kumar explained that most of their products are manufactured for medical purposes. One of those purposes, she said, was to make the components for diagnostic equipment used to test for COVID-19.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak in Massachusetts, Kumar explained that she felt there was “a lot of fear and a lot of misinformation” with her employees, stating that there was absenteeism amongst her workforce. As an employer, she said, they did their part to dispel misinformation, to be there to listen to employees and to discuss ideas with their staff.

“We owe you a thank you, to you and to Jay and to your employees who have stepped up and are continuing to step up during a very scary time,” Lesser said to Kumar. He then noted that Western Mass. residents should take pride in the area, knowing that “such an important piece of our country’s public health infrastructure is now being made in Holyoke.”

Kumar explained that when the outbreak began, she had a brainstorming session with the Universal Plastics engineering department to discuss what the business could do – and what they could do with the materials they had on hand. She gave credit to an employee named Paul D’Angelo, who came up with the idea to create face shields. Kumar said that the business had the equipment they needed to make the shields in house as well as the design. Normally this process takes two to four weeks, she said, however they were able to begin to manufacture the shields in just one week.

“There was just such a need,” she said, adding that “some of our other businesses, frankly, had died down, so we could devote our resources to this.”

Universal Plastics was able to give shields to several organizations in the community, including the Springfield Police Department and area hospitals. Circling back to absenteeism in the workplace – Kumar shared that while Universal Plastics has 400 employees across the country, 200 of them are in Massachusetts. She said that there was an absenteeism rate of 30 to 40 percent at the start of the virus, and noted that “people were scared.”

“There wasn’t a lot of knowledge out there, we had to do a lot of things very quickly to keep our people safe – but not just keep our people safe, but to communicate with them what we’re doing,” she said. “As an employer, we were being looked to inspire confidence, even if we didn’t have all the answers, we were on top of it.”

She explained that she personally spoke to every employee in the first few weeks of COVID-19, noting that she learned a lot from her employees. To that end, during the conversations, she even advised some employees to stay at home who were at risk, despite the business being essential.

“It wasn’t just about [the employees], it was about their families,” she said. “We’re a family company and we get it – people are putting themselves at risk every day, and we wanted to assure them that these are the steps that we’re doing...yes, there’s fears, risk, it’s about mitigating them...we all have to do our part in this.”

When asked by Lesser what she is seeing and hearing from customers, Kumar explained that “we are a community of innovators” and that there is “so much manufacturing, so much innovation in this state,” and so many people coming out with new products, she said. She gave a few examples, explaining that there is a new design for a ventilator cover that is going to be simpler and quicker to make, as well as pressurized fertilizer tanks that are now being used to disinfect large spaces like subway cars.

“We’re going to innovate our way out of this and come together as a community, as we have,” Kumar said.

Lesser added, “We were the Silicon Valley before the Silicon Valley, here in the Pioneer Valley.”

Pivoting, Lesser explained that “one of the things the coronavirus epidemic has shown a bright light on,” included inequalities that have existed in society for a long time. He said, “There was a lot about society that we wanted to fix, and our hope is there are things we can come out of even better.”

Lesser then touched upon the fact that there are less women and underrepresented groups in manufacturing. He asked Kumar what policy changes and initiatives the legislature should be working on to get these groups of people into manufacturing.

Kumar explained that she feels “education is at the center of all of it.” She added that Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) comes to mind, as they have a “big focus” in manufacturing and healthcare, which is “a really critical need right now.” She also noted their partnership with Masshire, which is a free class being offered to manufacturing workers around management.

“Things where there is a partnership between higher education institutions and the organizations that are helping people that are out of work, that’s going to be really critical with unemployment where it is,” she said. Kumar also added that Bay Path University’s online platform, the American Women’s College came to mind, noting that it “has a higher success rate for job placement as well as learning in any other online platform out there,” and said that “Bay Path really gets nontraditional students and nontraditional women.”

Rounding out the conversation, Kumar explained that there have been conversations surrounding PPP loans (paycheck protection program,) and that she believes support for that will be “huge for some smaller manufacturers.” She also added that there needs to be continued support for small, niche manufacturing, especially as businesses begin to reshore and come back overseas.