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Vaccination supporters

India-based film maker Cosmo Films Ltd.’s nonprofit arm, Cosmo Foundation, organized a one-day COVID-19 vaccination drive in Delhi as part of its work to “promote the quality of life” for communities that are home to Cosmo’s manufacturing sites.

Cosmo Foundation said it saw an opportunity to support the rural community and marginalized workers along with police and health workers, teachers and the elderly.

“No one can predict what the future holds for the people of our country as we are seeing new variants of COVID-19 which are about to strike us with new waves,” Yamini Jaipuria, managing trustee of Cosmo Foundation, said in a news release. “Our priority should be to get people vaccinated as soon as possible to fight against COVID-19. We need to promote vaccination drives and increase the vaccine counts in order to decrease the death counts. Together we can win this fight against the deadly disease.”

Cosmo is not alone, of course. Similar employee and community vaccination programs have taken place worldwide. In Juarez, Mexico, automotive supplier Lear Corp. set up rows of chairs to help innoculate 20,000 workers, family members and members of the public in mid-July, our sister paper Automotive News noted.

 

A mental health checkup

A United Kingdom-based injection molder and toolmaker is giving extra attention to another medical issue: mental health. Pentagon Plastics Group says its program is about bringing “mindfulness into manufacturing.”

The company in Horsham, England, says it has previously provided extra health-related benefits such as providing free fruit to employees. The new mindfulness focus ranges from self-care tips posted on electronic notice boards to having a “qualified mental health first aider” on its senior leadership team.

“It is no secret that manufacturing is still a heavily male-dominant industry, and it is a well-known fact that men are less likely to talk openly about their mental health and well-being,” Pentagon Plastics notes on its website. “Men aged 45-59 are now the highest at-risk group for suicide … [and] accounted for about [75 percent] of suicide deaths registered in 2019.”

Offering a safe and confidential platform for staff to discuss mental health has been an asset, the company said.

“Some employers may question the need to invest in this level of employee support, but if you value a reduction of sickness absence, improved employee retention, open and honest employee relations and an increase in employee engagement and productivity, this really is something to seriously consider,” the company said.

 

Record shortages

There’s been plenty of news about the shortage of materials for everything from packaging to home construction.

Add the record industry to that list.

Yes, vinyl shortages globally are resulting in delayed music album releases because record companies can’t get LPs pressed on schedule.

Karen Emanuel, chief executive of manufacturing company Key Production Group, tells The Guardian that albums that used to take three months to produce and ship before the pandemic are now require about six months of lead time.

The shortage also comes just a little more than a year after a fire destroyed Apollo Masters Corp., a California company that was one of two global suppliers of the lacquer needed to make master discs.