One worker said Impact Plastics managers would not let employees leave, which company denies
Several employees at a plastics factory in eastern Tennessee were killed during Hurricane Helene or are missing, amid warnings that the storm’s current death toll of more than 130 is likely to rise substantially as subsiding floodwaters allow rescuers to search through the wreckage.
Impact Plastics confirmed there had been fatalities at its plant in Erwin but did not say how many people had been killed. The company said there were missing and deceased employees as well as a contractor.
…
Jacob Ingram, a mold changer at the company, told the Knoxville News Sentinel that as the flooding started, managers instructed employees to move their cars away from the rising water – but would not let them leave. “They should’ve evacuated when we got the flash flood warnings, and when they saw the parking lot,” he said to the newspaper. "When we moved our cars, we should’ve evacuated then … we asked them if we should evacuate, and they told us not yet, it wasn’t bad enough.
Doesn’t this exact thing keep happening? Yay capitalism! \s
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/13/kentucky-tornadoes-candle-factory-search-survivors
It’s just going to get blamed on whatever mid level manager relayed the instructions.
Name for shame. I only find “plastic factory” and “company”?
People should know where they don’t want to work.
It’s in the body of the post; the company is called Impact Plastics.
Ah, thanks! Didn’t see that.
Will they be personally accountable for that faulty decision?
Hopefully what’s left of the business is sued into the ground for such willful negligence
Not enough. The people implementing that kind of work culture need prison time.
What loyal employees they would rather die if it means helping their company profit this is who you should to look to for guidance.
When you’re the one in the household with the job that makes actual money, threats of “leave and your fired” can make you do unreasonable things. This irrationality can only be alleviated by collective bargaining and unionization… the employees standing up and saying “nope, there’s a flash flood predicted tomorrow, we’re not going to be coming in.” Remember, these folks are working hard for a wage; their bosses and the owners are making the real money off their labor. All that matters to the company is the profit that could be lost if they shuttered one day for safety’s sake.
Shutting the factory down for a little rain and wind? That could effect output and the bottom line… can’t have that… I’m gonna need you to put your life at risk for our wealth or you can start looking for other work. Work that might not pay this well/have health insurance and other benefits you family needs to survive. Everyone who lives through it gets a pizza party!
NBC news had an article that not once mentioned that employees said they were not allowed to leave. Just that the company said what the company said publicly. Totally pro-corpo.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/hurricane-tennessee-deaths-plastic-factory-rcna173351
Holy crap, I didn’t believe you until I read this.
I hope future Google searches for Tavleen Tarrant and Suzanne Gamboa show this comment. Those journalists are disgusting scum of human beings. I would be ashamed to work at the same company as them.
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If you’re in danger from humans, fire, or disaster I don’t give a shit if you might lose your job.
Leave.
They were threatened with loss of their livelihoods, and disinformed of the risk to their lives.
Moreover, loss of income before winter is a death sentence.
They didn’t live in Alaska lol
Next time you volunteer at a shelter, ask the folks you’re helping which is the most dangerous season.
Loss of income in a rural area where the boss will tell all his buddies at the Irish pub to blacklist you from being hired
Liberals love sneering at working class folk using thinly veiled “advice”
Oh just find a better job that pays more with less stress. Just move, or just buy a truck that can ford the water. Just quit! Just form a union, it’s that simple!
Meanwhile if anything makes them feel the slightest bit uncomfortable they lose their shit, let alone if something stops them from their daily Starbucks.
I have never in my life heard advice from libruls like you describe. I don’t know what kool-aid you’re drinking.
As the other poster pointed out. They’re using the term with reference to economic liberalism. What the US was founded upon. What we today generally refer to as capitalism. Economic liberalism is a mouthful. It was generally shortened to liberalism and it’s adherence called liberals. The modern use of the term is a warping of that. Realistically wealthy Democrats and Wealthy Republicans are both liberals. Just not the Liberals you would be referring to with the term liberal. You’re using it as slang they’re using it as a proper noun/term.
Liberals as in free market capitalists, not left leaning progressives.
These are the edgy ml “liberals” right? Just checking.
Gahtdamn LiBuRuls. Reeeeeeeeeee.
This is you. This is what you sound like.
I believe from context that the person you are replying to was using Liberal meaning:
a person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
Not the left-leaning meaning. It’s another reason political discourse is so awful. People aren’t using common definitions of their vocabulary.
Totally. My wife works in a skyscraper and they had a fire on the 6th floor and were told not to leave while the firefighters investigate. She’s on the 25th, so I told her to leave anyway until they can clear the fire. Why risk it? By the time the FF arrive and clear it, it could be too late with people flooding the stairwells to get out.
Exactly. If firefighters need to check it out, I’m taking that as a reason to distrust the structure.
Live to sue another day.
That’s part of the issue. I don’t think many people thought the hurricane was going to cause the damage it did until it actually happened.
Your life is more valuable than your livelihood. Idk why in anyone’s right mind would even be there during a hurricane
The thing is you never expect it to get so bad that you might die it’s more like you think you’ll be stuck at work overnight or something like that and unfortunately it’s not worth losing your livelihood over having to spend a night at work. Unfortunately by the time people realize how bad it is it’s usually too late.
Because they are undocumented and are afraid their employer will have them deported if they don’t do what they’re told. That’s one reason.
There is no proof of this and no the odds of this being why they didn’t leave is so low. Most people in small rural towns don’t have options of employment, so factory work is really all they have access to. It’s a reason why small rural towns die when the mine or factory shuts down.
Because they are undocumented
I didn’t hear that anywhere. Usually it’s just people trying not to lose their job in a region where they’re scarce, and playing the odds with the severity.
FTA:
The Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) said in a statement that it had seen people affected struggling to get help from authorities.
“TIRRC staff members who deployed to the area witnessed community members struggling to access interpretation services from local and state government agencies, as well as requests by agencies for identification and documentation from immigrant community families that hindered their ability to identify missing loved ones,” the group said in a statement.
I didn’t say that the victims in this tragedy were undocumented. I didn’t hear that anywhere and I’m NOT trying to start a narrative. It was just the first thing that popped into my head when thinking about why a person would be so conditioned in obeying their employer.
Yours is also a sad but perfectly true reason as well.
In this case, I hope the family members and employees file a massive lawsuit against Impact Plastics.
It wouldn’t surprise me if the business is leveraged so that any lawsuit, while successful, would be like squeezing blood from a stone.
And unless they can pierce the corporate veil, the CEO can’t be held personally liable.
God, I fucking hate corporate personhood.
I think in this case an argument could be made for personal culpability, and I for one hope they are charged with manslaughter.
tragic company name
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xYfH8nftFpw
Here’s an interview with a survivor. It is infuriating.
I wonder if Terry was okay during the storm, since it took him ten fucking minutes to call back to say they were allowed to go home.
Another win for greed, capitalism and the American way!
If you think you aren’t just a number. Remember this day.
What’s truly sad is that people will defend working through life-threatening conditions and just think of it as American Exceptionalism.
My siblings live in an area affected by Helene, and I thank fucking god the one that works in a warehouse has the Gen Z attitude of “get fucked lol” when it comes to employers.
When the worst of the storm was coming through the stance of county 911 was that if you call they’re not coming unless someone is about to die. And yet some of these companies expect people to risk their lives to show up for $10-15 an hour? It’s insane.
I understand why everyone can’t just tell their employer to go fuck themselves, it’s just a horrible situation if you ever find yourself in the position of having to make the call of, ‘do I lose my job for what may or may not be a genuine emergency?’
Red States like cheap labor with the life is cheap attitude.
That’s why they’re “pro birth” because they need more bodies to fill the meat grinder.
pro forced birth.
At least they died making a line go up in the bank account of some rich people who already have more than enough money than they know what to do with.
The line must always go up.
And by line, I mean ladder. Pulled up by the people who got in early or had nepotistic connections. While they tower above us and demand we run inside a hamster wheel for the privilege of being alive.
Oh boy do I love our currently-fucked society.
When I worked at a shop we always joked (/s) that toolboxes had wheels on them so if the shop ever catches on fire we can just roll tf out and find new jobs down the street.
I suppose it depends on the job, but for mechanics that’s just true, since they own their tools (or will once they finish paying off the snapon guy).