Throughout last December, a series of deadly tornadoes whipped through much of the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. On December 10th, tornadoes of up to 190 miles per hour rampaged through five states, creating a path of destruction, with an estimated 93 deaths, countless injuries, and over 1,000 homes and buildings destroyed.
In this crisis, eight workers at a candle factory in Mayfield, Kentucky and six workers at an Amazon fulfillment center in Edwardsville, Illinois lost their lives. Why? In both cases, management told workers to remain in their facilities to work, and even threatened them with termination for leaving. Fortunately, some workers defied the directive, but others suffered the consequence of staying. The threat of these tornadoes came as no surprise to anyone – the National Weather Service had been putting out alerts of the potential danger but the bosses ignored them. This is murder in the name of profit. It’s about time we stood up for our well-being.
