Snap-on's Milwaukee plant, closed for COVID-19 cleaning, reopening to fill orders for US Military

MILWAUKEE -- Snap-on's Milwaukee manufacturing facility will reopen Tuesday night, April 7 to fulfill "critical" orders for the U.S. Military, a spokesperson with the company said.

The plant was closed Friday, April 3 for deep cleaning after a spokesperson reported a total of three diagnosed and unrelated cases of COVID-19 among workers.

In addition to filling orders for the military, employees will be making repairs to garages and maintenance facilities that service transportation fleets -- crucial activities in the continued function of emergency services, food delivery, distribution of medical supplies and other essential needs during the pandemic.

Statement from Snap-on:

To ensure a safe workplace for our associates, we engaged an outside professional cleaning service to sanitize the plant following CDC guidelines, idling the plant for caution well beyond the 72 hours the National Institutes of Health reports the virus can survive on surfaces.

In addition, the company is taking extra protective measures of making cloth face coverings available to all of the plant’s associates and providing extra cleaning materials for work stations, requiring all machinery to be wiped down more frequently.

These efforts are in addition to the already increased cleaning efforts at the facility, which include sanitizing throughout the facility on a 24-hour basis; practicing social distancing; staggering shift changes and breaks; and asking anyone with COVID-19-related symptoms to stay home.