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 will be about the same consequence as the Amazon warehouse that wouldn't let their employees leave during a tornado. Nothing.
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."
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 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
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
DelawareBaltimore and every factory disaster. Immigrants doing the labor that die for our carelessness, and easy to replace.
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.
If I learned anything durring covid it's that basically every business is "essential".
Yep.
Watching my 19yo niece wake up every morning to go work at the breakfast restaurant during the pandemic because she was essential.
My 60yo mom waking up to work at the pastries factory with hundreds of other people during the pandemic because she was essential.
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.
A lifetime ago I worked at a place that gave a shit on paper for legal reasons.
One night I hear an unfamiliar alarm, as does everyone in my immediate vicinity.
My contribution to the conversation about the nature of the alarm was to say they could stay and discuss it if they wanted to. But I was not about to burn up for the assholes who ran the place. I was out the fire door with all its alarms before they figured out it was a phone left off the hook.Seriously! As a Floridian, I've told bosses I'm leaving on several occasions. It wasn't a request. I'll be back when it's safe to do so.
This isn’t as easy for immigrants. If they’re on a work visa and lose their job, they can be deported. So many will stay for fear of being fired.
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.
We really need to break our conditioning that employment is the highest priority in our lives.
It's not really conditioning when it's actually the case. Without my job I'm likely homeless or dead within weeks. If Iose my job then I can no longer pay my bills, within a few months I'll be homeless. More urgently though I lose access to my health insurance which means I lose access to the medications keeping my mental illness in check. Finding a new job normally is a pain; finding one when you're so depressed that you really don't even care if you live or die is next to impossible. Also once it flares up you tend to stop caring about even seeking treatment for it making it a self perpetuating issue. If I got fired I would have only a few weeks to find a new job before I wound up in a position I likely wouldn't recover from. Sure there are things like unemployment but that doesn't even come close to paying my bills let alone affording my own health insurance.
So it would take a lot for me to risk walking away from my job and risk getting fired. I could easily see myself in the same position as these people, waiting until it's too late to run out of fear of losing my job. If we want people to be able to walk away from situations like this then we need to make survival possible without employment. We need healthcare to not be tied to employment and we need real unemployment pay to keep people afloat while they find a new job.
If only our health insurance wasn't tied to our jobs.
If only wages were high enough to have something extra to cushion.
If only we didn't have to work so long, wr could think and make better decisions.
If only I could afford rent one month while looking for a job
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
Well the companies that have dead peasant insurance do assign some value: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate-owned_life_insurance?wprov=sfla1
113 Years after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire and not enough has changed for the better.
This story and the Triangle Shirtwaist fire should be a reminder that almost every large business owner would kill you if it meant they could make slightly more money.
How much extra value do you think they generated in a couple of hours of making plastic pipes? That's what their lives were worth to the factory owners.
Can't really expect change when all we vote for are capitalists. If we want our culture to change, we have to make different choices in the ballot box.
That's part of it. Unions also made a difference for a while, until the propaganda machine convinced a bunch of people that Unions were bad. When in reality, Unions are a benefit to everyone, they protect workers from bad bosses, and historically they also protected bosses from getting the shit beat out of them by their employees.
Charge the manager with a separate count of murder for every employee that died due to their orders.
In old Japan, they would have made a bunch of management chop their finger off or commit seppuku.
Im not suggesting that. I'm just saying.
I’m suggesting it.
Murder wouldnt stick, have to prove intent.
Negligent Homicide or Criminal Negligence on the other hand...
TN has a strong felony murder statute. You dont need to prove intent, you just need to prove they were perpetrating a related violent felony.
I'm not a lawyer but in this case it seems like management have probably met the criteria for felony theft or kidnapping. Any properly motivated DA could then add a felony murder charge for each death.
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?
More times than I can die that’s for sure.
I would rather risk homelessness and starvation rather than drowning. If the water around the place I am is rising I am going to get to safety. Full stop. No job is worth risking my life for.
I understand what you're saying, but at the end of the day if you are dead, nothing else matters.
You'd be without many meals if you died in a flood.
Have you ever been dead? Your argument sounds exactly like my question.
Yes and yes. And now I don't rely on untrustworthy businesses for my paycheque. It's not worth the risk.
I'm wondering how many missed the chance to stand up for themselves, saw it coming, saw it pass, and knew it.
Something similar happened to me in the 2019 Australian bushfires.
All official advice when I left that morning was that we were safe to continue operating. I worked at a food bank so I considered my job essential. That afternoon, The wind changed, the humidity dropped, the official advice was updated, and my managers immediately shut the centre down. The immediate evacuationoffered me to order came in, it was now or never.
People started leaving. I had 3 underage interns with me, who's parents were on their way to come pick them up.
I kept looking outside thinking to myself "how the fuck am I going to getting home? And then what? My house is at risk too, it's too late for a real evacuation, I'm probably safer here with some water and wool blankets".
I had to an evacuation plan. I even had an evacuation plan assuming I was at work when the time to leave hit. Those plans hinged on me leaving as soon as the order can in, or preferably before.
What I never had was a plan to leave if I had someone stuck in my duty of care and couldn't take them with me. My conscience was not prepared to leave teenagers alone in a warehouse on fire, and in that moment I acknowledged I might die from this choice.
When the final parent came up pick them up, I was lucky, they had an empty seat in their car so I explained my situation and got in.
They offered to drop me at home, but again, what would I do differently at home other than burn in my own house instead of a warehouse. So we just kept driving.
My manager was pissed when she heard I'd stayed back so late, she told me I should have started jogging as soon as everyone else got in their cars. Ah, hindsight. She asked if I was seriously willing to die for my job... Not my job, but the people I have a duty of care for, sure. my first job was a picu candystriper, we were taught how to fill our pockets with babies in case of a fire, you don't leave the burning hospital alone. That's hard to unwire to develop an every man for himself attitude.
Edit: I think my screen reader and text to speech software is inserting random words in the sentences, I've been trying to edit them out but as I edit more keep appearing but I'm not sure if it's visible in the text or if it's an audio glitch, sorry.
Man if it's a state of emergency let the mgr sink with the ship.
It so sad, they probably complied because they needed their jobs.
Well on the bright side at least now they don't? I hope their families sue the shit out of the company and the manager.
I worked at a major destination-store focused on fishing and hunting products.
We had a hurricane hitting and the manager on duty made it clear that anyone going home to help out their families would be fired. Then when he got the call that water was rising near his house, he took off.
I've never hated a manager more than in that moment. When I was in management later, I made sure that I took all the shitty holiday shifts so my staff didn't have to work until 10pm on Christmas Eve and then be back in the building changing prices for the after-Christmas sale at 2am on the 26th.
The good ol rules for me not for thee shenanigans
I hope the management gets wrongful death suits launched against them
Civil suits? They belong in prison.
Yeah but they’ll hide behind their corporation so there’s no “person” to throw in prison.
Corporations aren’t people no matter what the supreme court says
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
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.
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
This story does exist! Just not in newspapers or websites.
My friend in a flood zone left her shift during the flooding in Asheville and she's not sure if she has a job coming back.
I’m glad she’s safe. You don’t need me to tell you she did the right thing .
I also think the news media would like to talk to her, especially after this tragedy.
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.
Dunno bout "not hiding" I just read 6 Bloomberg articles that said everything's going great and it must be my gosh darn feelings actin up again
Dems: We Are Capitalists
I mean, capitalism is going pretty great for the Bloombergs of the world.
Well, 99% of the people who vote. The people who dissent do it by not voting.
Can't blame the people not voting when they can't afford to miss work to vote.
If you're a wage earner, you've watched the last two decades as both Democrats and Republicans have made it explicitly clear that they're comfortable with you being paid poverty wages.
The worst part is the Trump appointed SCOTUS basically made this legal to do.
EDIT: This comment of mine was misleading and unfair. Neil Gorsuch was not on the SCOTUS when he decided a truck driver forfeit his job without means of legal recourse by choosing to abandon his trailer and prevent death from Hypothermia.
Man if I'm moving my parked car to avoid rising waters, I'm not re parking. I'm out of there.
I'm sure most people did the same thing.
The ones who were too loyal to the company died.
In the article and the after statement from the company it seems that a lot of employees left earlier but the ones that stayed were non native English speaking immigrants that paid with their lives to be cheap labor and are being represented by a refugee and immigration group in the area for their deaths.
So not loyal but those trapped to the company that held power over them. As you would expect of people that need the job to stay and allows for the company to have absolute power over their workers like they want.
PSA: before the advent of organized labor, workers would often negotiate with tactics such as “be fair to us, or we’ll break your kneecaps and burn your fucking factory down”.
And then the factory owners got organized, got the police unionized, and we can't do this anymore.
There are still more of us than there are of them
God damn that's sad. Fuck i don't want to die working
If you're under, like, 60, you probably will (sorry).
Nah, I've got like 10 days of pto saved up. I'm straight
Didn't the triangle waistshirt fire happen because the employers were fucking assholes and locked the fire escapes? This is like that, but with water instead of fire.
Honestly, in the course of our species living in servitude to a few thousand sociopaths who've used their capital/power to convince us that meaningless productivity for toxic economic metasisis is "the only way forward" and the meaning of life, I've come to realize their terraforming of our only habitat against our physically fragile species in their blind, reckless pursuit of ever moar is a purely accidental mercy.
Extinction is far preferable to generation after generation sacrificing themselves from cradle to grave solely to enrich our modern pharoahs of avarice and their nepo progeny without end. Sometimes extinct is better.
You're free to disagree, of course, but better to see the silver lining in what our species is quite literally dead set to do and well into accomplishing. Im just glad greed caused climate change won't permit this torturous, exploitative civilization to continue for more than another half century or so.
There are some studies that say the Sahara desert is actually the result of mass farming goats in the area that removed so much of the vegetation it started a cascading effect of desertification.
We have a long history of fucking up the planet for reasons that are silly in hindsight that leaves scars that literally affect the future of the planet. Unfortunately I don't think there will ever be a swift and merciful end but one that drags out so don't go praising the suffering to come yet.
JFC.
Meanwhile, at my workplace, we had to evacuate over the possibility of roads flooding in a tropical storm.
I thought this kind of nonsense was a thing of the past.
Do employers not have a duty of care to their employees over there?
Or the word “twice”?
I hope their productivity wasn't impeded by this minor inconvenience. I'd hate it if their dying led to their employer making marginally less money. So rude of them.
