Workers at one of Walmart’s South Bethlehem distribution centers say at least nine employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and they accuse the retail giant of not taking adequate steps to protect them from the novel virus.

Those interviewed by lehighvalleylive.com say workers are “packed in like sardines” in the sprawling, 1.2-million-square-foot e-commerce hub at 3215 Commerce Center Blvd. in the Majestic Realty Center, which employs just shy of 1,800 people.

Hand sanitizer is only placed at major entrances and employees report they can’t easily wash their hands during shifts with limited breaks and long walks to bathrooms. Employees say the building is not being sanitized up to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

On Wednesday, lehighvalleylive.com sent its second series of questions about the outbreak to Walmart. Later that night, workers reported they were notified the facility was closing until Monday and would reopen with one 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift.

Walmart Global Communications spokesman Kory Lundberg confirmed Thursday morning the company had temporarily suspended operations at the Bethlehem facility Wednesday evening. Walmart will diver orders to other fulfillment centers to meet customer demand during the closure.

“Our associates’ well-being is critically important to us," he said. “Due to unique circumstances, our Bethlehem eCommerce Fulfillment Center will temporarily suspend operations until Monday, April 6 so we can make adjustments to our operations, including schedule changes and bringing specialists in to thoroughly clean and sanitize the building.”

As the COVID-19 outbreak swept across the nation, Walmart distribution center employees say they’ve been holding their breath, knowing it would get into the facility, constantly wondering just when it would arrive.

When it did, news started trickling out amongst shifts over the weekend of March 29, prompting many employees to walk out and take advantage of the unpaid coronavirus leave Walmart is offering. It is a hard decision that some might be not able to afford to make.

“It is your paycheck or your health,” a woman, who is currently a problem solver in the consolidation department, said.

Lehighvalleylive.com granted her anonymity because she feared she would face repercussions at work for speaking out.

Employees say the one case has grown to at least nine as the distribution center continues to run normally, powered by mothers, fathers, grandparents, daughters and sons, some with serious health conditions. They say they understand they’re providing an essential service when they ship out food, hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies and diapers.

But they don’t understand why Walmart is putting their lives at risk to fulfill orders of clothes, decorative pillows and video games. Before the coronavirus hit, employees were already working mandatory overtime and lengthy shifts to keep up with an onslaught of orders.

“This is corporate greed. I understand this is an essential place. If you want to keep it going, run it with a skeleton crew," said Antonio DeJesus, who has worked in the center since it opened five years ago. "Don’t overload it with people.”

Not all employees agree Walmart is not doing enough,

“It is very easy to blame up,” said Mel Hodges, 65, who has been a line worker there for about three years. “I found that once the coronavirus reached the warehouse and we had our first hit on it I felt management responded immediately.”

The majority of workers interviewed for this story want Walmart to be more transparent about the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, and take more aggressive steps to curb its spread in the massive building.

The company contends it took decisive steps as soon as the first case was confirmed.

“When we received the first positive case in this facility less than a week ago, we reacted immediately,” Lundberg said. “Facility leadership communicated each known, confirmed case as we were made aware. Again, these conversations included information about our emergency leave policy so associates would fully know their options. We also increased cleaning when we received our first confirmed case.”

Hodges, who was working the weekend the COVID-19 case was announced, agrees Walmart took the cases seriously.

"I really think that management stepped up and closed the warehouse. That’s a big thing to do;. especially with the order pool we have,” Hodges said. “They are taking it seriously, to say that they’re not taking it seriously is a misconception.”

The company is taking extra steps to protect workers, Lundberg said Thursday.

“When associates return, they will notice several changes made with their health and safety in mind — including access to gloves and masks, along with temperature checks and health screens before every shift — consistent with new policies Walmart announced for all U.S. associates this week,” he said.

Earlier this week, Walmart said it would not be confirming coronavirus cases in any of its retail locations and distribution centers.

“Any update on COVID-19 cases can only come from local health officials. Per the requirement of HIPPA privacy laws, we do not share personal health information about any associate in order to protect their privacy,” the company said through a spokeswoman. “We are focused on serving our customers during this unprecedented time.”

At the time, the spokeswoman confirmed the distribution center was operating normally. Employees say that’s exactly the problem.

DeJesus has been with the center since its inception and he now works as lead in the consolidation department, where workers receive totes of products and bring orders together for shipping. He first heard rumblings of a positive case on March 14 in the locker room before ending his shift, but prior to that time, he wasn’t too worried about the virus.

The anonymous employee came down with a bad cough -- later diagnosed as bronchitis -- around the same time, but had to quarantine and go through testing to rule out the coronavirus. Walmart made her jump through hoops to qualify for disability while she awaited her test results, but showed little concern, she said.

When the test came back negative, she was allowed to return to work for nearly two days before anyone asked for proof of her negative results.

No one was adhering to social distancing guidelines in the consolidation center when she returned.

“People were coming up to my desk,” she recalled. “I yelled at somebody, ‘That is not six feet!’”

There was not even hand sanitizer in their department, so she salvaged some damaged bottles and cleaning wipes headed for the trash. This way her coworkers could clean their hands and sanitize the cell phone-like scanners they rely on all day.

She arrived at 6 a.m. for her shift one day to find a cleaning crew with a wipe and spray bottles haphazardly wiping down tables and chairs, ignoring the majority of the high-touch areas.

“None of that is being sanitized,” she said.

Hodges also works in consolidation — where he picks products and packs boxes — and he said he had no issue finding sanitization supplies. But he agrees that his coworkers were not obeying social distancing rules. Many people were greeting each other with hugs.

“It is the busiest area of the building,” he said. “It is the most crowded area of the building. I saw (hand sanitizer) available to us.”

The more DeJesus learned, the more he worried about his wife, who was recently hospitalized for respiratory issues, and his adult stepdaughter, who works with him in the distribution center. Many of his coworkers head up to New York City to socialize, the epicenter of the virus in the United States.

Something felt off in recent weeks as more associates did not show up when typically people work long shifts for overtime, DeJesus said.

“I started feeling it in the atmosphere. You know when you’ve been in a place for so long you can tell when something is right or not right?" he said.

DeJesus decided to call out sick for a Sunday, March 15 overtime shift after a restless night of little sleep. He worried he might be penalized for calling out. But by Monday he’d decided his health and safety came first and applied for extended leave until May.

“We’re dealing with a silent enemy,” DeJesus said. “You can’t see or feel it. It’s like playing Russian roulette.”

He thinks his employer should close the distribution center for two weeks and disinfect the entire building.

Kirk Lewis has worked at the e-commerce center for three years and is currently the lead in the procurement department, working 60-plus hour weeks Monday through Thursday on the evening shift.

Lewis has been trying to sound the alarm since Saturday, March 21, when a colleague alerted him another coworker had fallen ill, but Lewis says management rebuffed his efforts, potentially endangering other workers.

Even though he was off that Saturday, Lewis immediately texted his boss to tell him of a possible COVID-19 case in the center and called Bethlehem’s non-emergency hotline, which told him to call the CDC. Lewis heeded their advice and also followed up Monday with the Bethlehem Health Department.

When asked to confirm whether there was a COVID-19 case in the Walmart facility, Bethlehem Health Director Kristen Wenrich said her staff only gets involved if a city resident tests positive. Then staff interviews that person to determine who they were in close contact with after they began showing symptoms.

“As part of that interview, we review work and school status. If the person is employed by a business that is open to the public, we provide that information to the general community,” Wenrich said. “If it is a private employer, we work with the employer to notify close contacts of the positive case.”

She noted the state issued guidelines for essential businesses, but the majority of the rules focus on how infected workers should quarantine, not how businesses should protect employees.

From March 23 until March 26, it was business as usual at the distribution center, according to Lewis. Walmart management began telling a few select employees in person on March 27 to alert them an employee had tested positive for COVID-19, Lewis said.

DeJesus found out about Lewis’ employee testing positive from a coworker, even though he’d helped that employee on a computer shortly before he went on leave. No one from Walmart contacted him to tell him he might have been exposed.

“I’ve heard more and more people are getting sick,” DeJesus said. “They’re not taking any initiatives and still haven’t sent out emails notifying us. Can you believe it?”

The anonymous associate who works as a problem solver said Walmart texts her constantly with updates about overtime, but there’s not been a word about COVID-19 diagnoses.

On Friday night, a major walkout ensued with a huge chunk of the night shift walking off the job, Lewis said. The problem solver associate was off on Friday, but a friend texted her and let her know about the case of COVID-19.

“When I first found out, I started crying,” the worker, who has taken an unpaid three week leave, said. “I’m like, here it is. I don’t want my coworkers to die or get sick or their children."

Since he retired, Hodges went part-time on the weekends. He was there Saturday, March 29, when the facility general manager came down and announced an employee tested positive for COVID-19. He saw a cleaning crew come in that Saturday.

“If you wanted to go home, you could go home and many went home,” Hodges, who stayed to work, recalled. “It crippled the warehouse, but that was ok, it’s their right.”

Lewis was livid when he learned his sick coworker is actually one of his employees. The man and his wife both tested positive and the husband at one point was in critical condition, he said.

“There’s no transparency there,” Lewis said of corporate.

Lewis went into work on Saturday and asked to meet with upper management to find out why he was not looped in that one of his employees tested positive for the virus. He was told management is following company protocol.

As Lewis left Saturday, he started telling employees an associate had tested positive for the virus. Several people walked off of the job immediately.

"On the way out, I told people walking in, ‘An associate has tested positive and the place is infected.’ Some of them thanked me,” Lewis said.

DeJesus, who is bilingual, noted a lot of the facility’s workers don’t speak English. He had to tell coworkers someone tested positive.

Corporate keeps it quiet because “they don’t want to pay for someone to stay home. It hurts them financially. It comes down to the whole dollar and cents. It’s a shame. It’s sad to see,” DeJesus said.

Lewis spent all day Monday waiting for a call with human resources, but the phone never rang. Then on Tuesday evening, a coworker called to tell him more associates tested positive. Lewis said for now, he is out on unpaid leave and filed for unemployment.

Workers feel trapped. Do they choose the unpaid leave to protect their health and risk financial trouble? Or do they keep working grueling hours in unsafe conditions, risking serious illness?

“It is a scary time,” the woman said. “I have a mortgage. I have car payments. I have children. I have a grandson. I can’t even see my grandson. I am afraid to see my grandson because I might get him sick. It is stressful. I can’t sleep at night.”

“They just act like there’s nothing wrong,” she said of her employer.

Hodges plans to return to work on Monday.

“If the company was at fault I would say so, but it’s not,” Hodges said. “This is a disease, a virus, that’s brand new to us, I believe everybody is trying as best as they can.”

Walmart operates another e-commerce fulfillment center at 2785 Commerce Center Blvd. in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII. It remains open and lehighvalleylive.com does not know about any cases in that facility.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether it’s a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. If there’s anything about this story that needs attention, please email her. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.