One worker said Impact Plastics managers would not let employees leave, which company denies
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.
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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.
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.
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.
We need to get united in boycotting media companies that don't put the people first. No viewers, no advertisements will keep being bought, and they will change their rhetoric real quick.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?’
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.