Thursday, September 28, 2023

Newport News Shipbuilding moves to 2 shifts in effort to reduce virus spread

Newport News Shipbuilding will start running two shifts instead of three in an effort to combat the spread of the coronavirus, officials said.

Spokesman Duane Bourne said the change doesn’t involve layoffs and will take effect on May 4. The shipyard is also extending its liberal leave policy until May 18.

Shipyard President Jennifer Boykin said the policy change was a safety measure to reduce “close personal contact” with workers, which would make social-distancing easier while continuing to run operations.

The shifts will be from 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. In between the shifts, the shipyard will clean high-traffic and high touch-point areas as another effort to reduce spreading the new coronavirus.

John Mangalonzo
John Mangalonzohttp://wydaily.com
John Mangalonzo (john@localdailymedia.com) is the managing editor of Local Voice Media’s Virginia papers – WYDaily (Williamsburg), Southside Daily (Virginia Beach) and HNNDaily (Hampton-Newport News). Before coming to Local Voice, John was the senior content editor of The Bellingham Herald, a McClatchy newspaper in Washington state. Previously, he served as city editor/content strategist for USA Today Network newsrooms in St. George and Cedar City, Utah. John started his professional journalism career shortly after graduating from Lyceum of The Philippines University in 1990. As a rookie reporter for a national newspaper in Manila that year, John was assigned to cover four of the most dangerous cities in Metro Manila. Later that year, John was transferred to cover the Philippine National Police and Armed Forces of the Philippines. He spent the latter part of 1990 to early 1992 embedded with troopers in the southern Philippines as they fought with communist rebels and Muslim extremists. His U.S. journalism career includes reporting and editing stints for newspapers and other media outlets in New York City, California, Texas, Iowa, Utah, Colorado and Washington state.

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