What the Funko? A toy company, a boat yard, and house cleaners say they are 'essential'

Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” order was intended to curb the spread of the coronavirus, by keeping Washingtonians home and halting non-essential business in the state. 

But some businesses, with dubious claim on the “essential” title, are staying open anyway. KUOW found three: Seattle boat yards that service private yachts, an Everett collectible factory, and housekeeping companies for private residences. 

Pleasure yachts 

CSR Marine in Ballard is one of the largest boat yards in Seattle. Its website, under services, says that it provides custom work and restoration to boats. Its photo gallery shows images of private yachts. 

“(These boats are) fixed up to play with for summer or racing reasons,” said a CSR Marine employee. “To go cruising in the San Juans, not for emergency work in a pandemic.” 

The employee is not being named for fear of retaliation. 

Gov. Inslee’s order states that “maritime transportation workers – port workers, pilots, longshoremen, mariners, equipment operators, ship and vessel operators, crane operators, and shipyard foremen/women, marina workers” are essential and must remain open during the pandemic. 

After Inslee’s list of essential workers went out, CSR Marine celebrated with boxes of doughnuts for employees to share. 

The Ballard shipyard remains open and operating with sometimes up to nine people in a “small room” and boat yard staff coming in and out throughout the day, the employee said. Tools are shared and office staff sit in stations that are nearly shoulder-to-shoulder. The boat work is performed in tight quarters and on hard surfaces. 

Some work requires N95 masks, Tyvek suits and plastic gloves, a hot commodity inside hospitals and health clinics. An email to CSR employees asked that they conserve personal protection equipment. 

“The less PPE we waste, the less we need to order. The less we need to order, the more for our Medical Professionals!” the email said. 

Jeremiah Jewell, CSR Marine vice president, said he had considered laying off his entire staff after Gov. Inslee’s order was announced on March 23, but was in contact with officials at the Department of Commerce and the Northwest Marine Trade Association who advised him they could remain open. 

“Everybody is looking at this, and seeing if companies are trying to get around this now,” Jewell said. “That’s not what we’re trying to do.” 

He said he was keeping in mind employees who have been with the company for 35 years or more.  And while the business does primarily service pleasure boats, he said they do sometimes work on police and fire boats.

Jewell said this week brought additional layoffs and furloughs. The staff of more than 40 at the Seattle location was cut down to 16. He said most of the marine industry is staying open, and that many of those companies service pleasure boats. 

“We're all working to find the right balance between staying open and keeping people safe. I would like to know if the other maritime companies that are remaining open are making efforts as diligent as ours to reduce staff and increase safety?” Jewell wrote in a follow-up email.

He listed four other businesses that service pleasure yachts that are still open. 

The CSR employee was frustrated. 

“We don’t need 40-plus people endangering their lives during the pandemic so the owner can avoid bankruptcy while we work on pleasure yachts of the wealthy,” the employee said. 

Funko the collectible toy factory 

Headquartered in downtown Everett, Funko is known for the collectible Pop! figurines that grace bookcases and shelves. They’ve opted to keep their distribution centers open. 

An Everett-based employee tested positive for coronavirus, according to an employee email sent out this week. The employee had been working remotely since March 12. 

In a Covid-19 update earlier this month, Funko CEO Brian Mariotti wrote to employees that those at the Everett headquarters would work from home. But their global distribution centers would remain open “to keep our critical supply chain moving and to fulfill orders for key retailers and our e-commerce customers,” the email, sent last week, said. There are two in Everett.

“Please know that our operations team will continue to take necessary precautions to protect our warehouse employees. The health and safety of our warehouse employees is our primary concern and their continued efforts are crucial to all of us,” the email said. 

One Funko employee told KUOW there are 50 people working on a typical shift at one of two warehouses in Everett, where customer orders for big box retailers Target, Walmart and Amazon, and individual sales, are filled. 

“Because so many different places are closing down, I feel that the customers would understand if we closed down for two weeks,” the employee said. 

Given the outbreak, employees were given the choice to use sick or vacation time. If employees were laid off, however, they would have a right to unemployment. 

Last Tuesday, two Funko employees said more than half of the night workforce did not come in. Funko has set up hand sanitizer and rubber glove stations and provided Lysol wipes. Now they’re taking temperatures. 

For some who work in the distribution center, not showing up isn’t a choice. They have bills to pay. For those with underlying conditions, the choice is even harder. 

“I don't really have the choice to stay at work with a pandemic going around when people are coughing at the warehouse,” one Funko employee said. “People seem sick. It’s possible people have it and don’t know but still need to make money.” 

Funko did not respond to a request for comment. 

House cleaning 

There has been confusion on whether house cleaners qualify as “essential” under Inslee’s stay at home order. Of three house cleaning services KUOW contacted, two remained operational. 

The Cleaning Authority was one of those, as of March 30. 

In an email sent to a customer they wrote “It is our understanding that we are considered an essential service as we are helping to clean and disinfect people's homes. We completely understand and respect anyone not wanting us in their homes during this time and have instructed our employees to stay home if they feel unsafe continuing to work.” 

In an email they explained that in Inslee’s order, under the section for “hospital and laboratory personnel,” it includes “housekeeping.” But is that housekeeping for private residences, too? 

The Department of Commerce told KUOW: “With regard to home cleaners, I have reached out to [the Governor's office to] get clarification on that. I know there have been many questions from that segment because some may be considered to have essential clients (disabled, elderly or medically fragile, for example), but not all. I have not received further information at the present time.” 

Ladonna Riley, owner of Ladonna's Cleaning Service, opted to keep her employees home. She reasoned that she couldn’t put her workers in an unsafe environment. 

“You have a lot of scared people and you’re taking away their income,” Riley said. “When people are scared they’re going to rearrange the rules to fit themselves.” 

She said she holds no judgement against other cleaning operations that are still up and running. But she said that having been involved in a fatal car accident five years ago, she learned that money was not as important as people. 

Officials have created an online form for reporting businesses that aren't following social distancing mandates. Some businesses have asked for clarification or requested an exception. Currently there is a team of people at state emergency operations, working through thousands of requests with the Governor’s office to make determinations as quickly as possible.