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.

…

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.

  • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
    1316·
    2 months ago

    If you’re in danger from humans, fire, or disaster I don’t give a shit if you might lose your job.

    Leave.

    • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
      1311·
      2 months ago

      They were threatened with loss of their livelihoods, and disinformed of the risk to their lives.

          • acockworkorange@mander.xyz
            11·
            1 month ago

            This absolute beet thinks winter in the hilly side of Tennessee doesn’t get several inches of snow. Or that you can just brave it if you lack shelter.

            This is bad, and you should feel bad.

        • SoJB@lemmy.mlEnglish
          1344·
          2 months ago

          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.

          • Lemminary@lemmy.world
            353·
            2 months ago

            I have never in my life heard advice from libruls like you describe. I don’t know what kool-aid you’re drinking.

            • Eldritch@lemmy.worldEnglish
              121·
              2 months ago

              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.

            • sibachian@lemmy.mlEnglish
              31·
              2 months ago

              it’s largely the american right who call the left liberals, anyone on the left who identifies as a liberal should reconsider their use of the term.

            • sin_free_for_00_days@sopuli.xyz
              143·
              2 months ago

              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.

    • Frozengyro@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Rooskie91@discuss.online
      9·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • Heikki@lemm.ee
      61·
      2 months ago

      What’s truly sad is that people will defend working through life-threatening conditions and just think of it as American Exceptionalism.

    • OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml
      161·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      36·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • AliasAKA@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        2 months ago

        I think in this case an argument could be made for personal culpability, and I for one hope they are charged with manslaughter.

  • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    37·
    2 months ago

    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?’

  • Fedizen@lemmy.world
    321·
    2 months ago

    Hopefully what’s left of the business is sued into the ground for such willful negligence

    • Zement@feddit.nl
      17·
      2 months ago

      Not enough. The people implementing that kind of work culture need prison time.

  • scripthook@lemmy.world
    29·
    2 months ago

    Your life is more valuable than your livelihood. Idk why in anyone’s right mind would even be there during a hurricane

    • Spaceballstheusername@lemmy.world
      41·
      2 months ago

      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.

    • frostysauce@lemmy.world
      117·
      2 months ago

      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.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.caEnglish
        131·
        2 months ago

        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.

        • PrincessLeiasCat@sh.itjust.works
          4·
          2 months ago

          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.

        • frostysauce@lemmy.world
          44·
          2 months ago

          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.

      • SupraMario@lemmy.world
        6·
        2 months ago

        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.

    • andros_rex@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      You have the disposable income to be able to post online. You can afford some sort of device and internet access. You probably don’t worry about how you are going to eat tonight.

      There aren’t a lot of jobs in these shit hole places. There aren’t a lot of social services. Lose your job and starve versus stay and hope things pass over.

      • scripthook@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        Yes I own a home but I’m broke as fuck between paychecks. I have less than $100 in my bank account to last two weeks until my next paycheck. Do I live frugal and have a wife and a son.

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      “Use your best judgement.” WINK WINK

      If the manager had sent everyone home and the factory wasn’t destroyed, they’d get fired for it.

  • b161@lemmy.blahaj.zone
    271·
    2 months ago

    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.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 months ago

      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.

  • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
    273·
    2 months ago

    Name for shame. I only find “plastic factory” and “company”?

    People should know where they don’t want to work.

    • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.eeEnglish
      18·
      2 months ago

      113 years ago the Triangle Waistshirt Factory Fire also killed a fuckload of people… and the owners got off scot-free.

    • InverseParallax@lemmy.worldEnglish
      112·
      2 months ago

      Not capitalism, just the south.

      They never got over losing their slaves, first they kept going with Jim crow and the KKK, then right to work meant they could treat poor white people bad too.

      • andros_rex@lemmy.world
        9·
        2 months ago

        “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” -LBJ

  • ceoofanarchism@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    151·
    2 months ago

    What loyal employees they would rather die if it means helping their company profit this is who you should to look to for guidance.

    • TrueStoryBob@lemmy.world
      30·
      2 months ago

      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!