Hold Impact Plastics accountable for employee hurricane deaths: Lawrence

Civil and criminal penalties must be imposed on those at Impact Plastics who forced workers to prioritize company profits over their own lives. — Image credit: Getty Images

On Sept. 27, eleven workers at a Tennessee plastics plant were swept away by floodwaters from Hurricane Helene while clinging to the back of a flatbed semitruck as the water rapidly rose. The truck was later struck by debris, causing at least 10 employees of Impact Plastics to be thrown into the floodwaters. Five workers have been confirmed dead, and one remains missing.

Families of the victims claim the victims were told that they couldn’t leave despite warnings of severe rainfall and flooding. Impact Plastics has denied these allegations, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has launched a formal inquiry into the plant’s actions.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence argues that civil and criminal penalties must be imposed on those at Impact Plastics who forced workers to prioritize company profits over their own lives.

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

What does it say about our society when we allow businesses to buy human life, lost because a supervisor went on a power trip? There must be meaningful accountability for pushing quotas over people’s lives.

It’s been 118 years since Upton Sinclair gave us “The Jungle,” a novel exposing the harsh and unforgiving work conditions of those in factories and juxtaposed to the capitalist-infused cruelty of those positioned in power. Has that much really changed in the past century? Because when situations like that in rural Tennessee come to light, it seems that we’re still dealing with unsafe work conditions, and in some sense, just immoral labor.

Within the past year, for instance, Iowa and Arkansas passed laws allowing children as young as 14 to work in meat plants and industrial laundries. Teens as young as 15 can work on assembly lines around dangerous machinery. Our society has clearly elevated economy over humanity, and it’s been doing so for a long time. If you look back at our nation’s history, it’s clearly par for the course.

Regardless, it’s never too late to say that we the people deserve to live in a civilized humanity, not one that elevates economy over individuals. People lost their lives in those storms. Those who died because they were implicitly or explicitly threatened with the loss of their livelihoods — they deserve justice. There must be criminal penalties in place.

The recent wave of floods and storms sweeping across the country have left incredible devastation, from homes ravaged to lives taken, and there has been so much loss. My heart truly goes out to those impacted now of the news of the cataclysm, one particular story caught my attention that is of what happened at a plastics factory in rural Tennessee, despite official warnings to evacuate as Hurricane Helene loomed, ad number of workers at impact plastics continued to work, several of them, that is, I presume, those who survived said that they were not allowed to leave the plant before the storm hit. It wasn’t until water flooded the parking lot and the power went out that the plant allowed the workers to leave. As of Friday, 11 of those workers were swept away, five of whom were rescued, two reported dead and four missing. Well, I completely appreciate that several Tennessee State agencies are investigating the matter. There must be more than civil penalties involved if leaders that impact plastics ordered people to stay and work, there must be criminal liability for any employer who directs an employee to remain at the work site instead of escaping and impending natural disaster. Hard stop. Capitalism has simply gone too far when employers are forcing workers to choose between their livelihoods and their lives, we’ve lost all sense of morality, because let’s be clear here, what we’re talking about is making someone choose between their life and their economic independence, that is their ability to feed themselves and their families and keep a roof over their heads. That is nothing short of a Hobson’s Choice Said another way, there’s no real choice there. That is what these workers are alleging that they experienced at impact plastics that type of cruelty must be punished with the taking away of an employer’s freedom a damn fine or loss of business license simply will not cut it. There must be prison time and it must be significant otherwise, what message does it send? What does it say about our society when we allow businesses to buy human life lost because a supervisor went on a power trip? There must be meaningful accountability for pushing quotas over people’s lives. It’s been 118 years since Upton Sinclair gave us the jungle, a novel exposing the harsh and unforgiving work conditions of those in factories and juxtaposed to the capitalist infused cruelty of those positioned in power. Has that much really changed in the past century, because when situations like that in rural Tennessee come to light, it seems that we’re still dealing with unsafe work conditions and in some sense, just immoral labor. Within the past year, for instance, Iowa and Arkansas passed laws allowing children as young as 14 to work in meat plants and industrial laundries. Teens as young as 15 can work on assembly lines around dangerous machinery. Our society has clearly elevated economy over humanity, and it’s been doing so for a long time. If you look back at our nation’s history, it’s clearly par for the course. Regardless, it’s never too late to say that we the people deserve to live in a civilized humanity, not one that elevates economy over individuals. People lost their lives in those storms, those who died because they were implicitly or explicitly threatened with the loss of their livelihoods. They deserve justice. There must be criminal penalties in place