We really need to break our conditioning that employment is the highest priority in our lives. That employers can dictate whether we take live saving action depending on how many pennies it'll cost them.
And this isn't to victim blame. What happened to these people is a travesty and the company holds the blame for it, 100%. It's more to point out that we're the only ones that can take action on this. Nobody (certainly not corps) is going to break this mindset or norm on our behalf. Look out for yourself and your peers. You're more important then your employer's bottom line.
That employers can dictate whether we take live saving action depending on how many pennies it’ll cost them.
If nothing else we must internalize this fact. i think many are still operating under the impression that their employers value their lives. We must understand viscerally that our lives do not, to them, at all. I think the rest takes care of itself once we get over that hump
99% of the country votes capitalist every two years, and then everyone clutches their pearls when capitalist things happen. Guys, this is the world you wanted. The ruling parties are not hiding who they are from you.
I know they were scared to lose their livelihoods but there’s no way my job could have that level of control over me. ” Sorry fuckfaces but biblical stuff is happening outside, I’m out”
How many times in your life have you been without a meal for an entire day because you couldn't afford one? Ever been without a place to live?
I could go without for a day... but if I had dependents, I'd be worried for not just the day, but every day after that too
Evacuation Warnings should carry a legal responsibility to close all nonessential businesses until the immediate crisis is over.
Honestly, even the Waffle House manager should hand over the keys to the Fire Chief. Those guys know how to cook, and clean up after themselves, should the need arise.
113 Years after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire and not enough has changed for the better.
Archive link to the story. There should be some consequences to the management who didn't allow them to leave when the flash flood warning was issued.
There should be some consequences to the management who
didn't allow them to leavedidn't send them the fuck home immediately.I work in a factory that sits on a flood plane. It's happened more than once that by the time a decision is made to cut people loose, it's already difficult to leave the area. Often by the time a flash flood warning is issued there are only a few minutes of clear roadway left.
It's entirely possible that a similar situation happened here, that the safest place for those people to be was in that building, that there was no way out and they would have been swept down stream regardless.even if that's the case, this company should be held liable for sitting on their hands and keeping people at work through a storm where the risk of flooding was so great. That decision should have been made much sooner. If there was a job to come back to you can always post them for a Saturday and wouldn't have to pay overtime until they actually hit 40 hours.
I'm so fucking fed up with the false urgency in these places. This company made high density plastic parts. Literally nothing they were making is life or death. Nothing they were making couldn't wait another day. No customers were going to bail because the factory they needed their parts from got hit by a fucking hurricane.
But everyone, every fucking person in leadership, is constantly pressured to squeeze out more units, more production. Keep people working as long as possible, because every second they're not making a product is a second the company is losing money. And because now every fucking company has jumped on to the lean manufacturing model, they are constantly, perpetually, chronicly behind. The second an order comes in it's already too late and we need those units NOW. no lead time, no back orders. So stay at your machine because the boss man needs another Lexus.
Fucking burn it down
There will be about the same consequence as the Amazon warehouse that wouldn't let their employees leave during a tornado. Nothing.
That matter isn't settled yet but my guess is that Amazon will ultimately settle out of court for a lot of money. With that said a Tornado is a different kettle of fish than a flood. The warning time for a tornado is usually measured in bare minutes, sometimes when you're lucky you get 20 minutes and even then where exactly are you going to go?
Floods like this one though had HOURS of warning and there's positively no reason for employees to get caught like this. There was more than enough time for these folks to get a known safe place. It's despicable.
There absolutely were consequences. A longer-than-it-should-have-taken investigation was done from which they discovered that killing your employees is very naughty and were told that they shouldn't do that anymore. In return, Amazon made a very sincere "whoopsie-doodle 👉👈, I sowwy. But we didn't directly kill these production assets, so no harm no foul."
Why? They were immigrants so they could be disposable labor right?
One of the employees who died, Bertha Mendoza, 56, fell off the truck and vanished into the flood, according to Ingram and a representative from Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.
Same with the fucking bridge that got destroyed in Delaware and every factory disaster. Immigrants doing the labor that die for our carelessness, and easy to replace.
I do not understand the mentality. Companies do not care for your well-being. Don't die for them just because your manager is an idiot that says "stay put".
We have the hindsight with full knowledge of the risk they were taking. I'd bet they only thought they were risking their next paycheck, not their lives.
You think floodwaters rising towards your building isn't sufficient signs to know that you're in a dangerous situation?
I'm sorry but I've seen enough in life to know you do not fuck with water on the move. Floods are dangerous as fuck. If the water is rising around you, get the fuck out of dodge or as high up as you can get.
Homesslessness in the US is about a coin flip off for death or suffering, every hour of every day. Quitting your job or getting fired for insubordination prevents you from collecting unemployment, and most Americans have less than a weeks expenses saved due the the last 60 years of low pay and exponentially rising expenses, causing homelessness if you lose your job. You might die in a hurricane induced flood, but that risk can seem less than slowly dying while homeless or in prison for being homeless.
God damn that's sad. Fuck i don't want to die working
If "a state of emergency" doesn't protect workers who are fleeing said emergency in the same way that jury duty and voting rights do, then they are broken and need to be fixed.
Didn't this happen during the last Hurricane as well? Oh it was 2021
And it will happen during the next Hurricane as long as thr employers face zero repercussions.
And a tornado
Look, I know it's not the point, and that is an insane story that should have serious consequences for those responsible...
...but "PTO time" is bothering me more than I'd like.
A much happier story would have “I was fired for fleeing a flood but I lived to tell the tell”
This is heartbreaking
JFC.
