Factory employees claim they were warned they'd be terminated if they left their job during a tornado alert

Dec 14, 2021, 1:33 AM

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Factory employees claim they were warned they'd be terminated if they left their job during a tornado alert

Workers at a Kentucky candle factory destroyed by a tornado said supervisors threatened to fire them if they left their jobs early to try to avoid the twister’s path.

The Mayfield Consumer Products factory in Mayfield was destroyed on Friday after a tornado barreled through the area. Eight people were confirmed dead and eight remained missing at the factory as of Sunday, but more than 90 others had been located.

However, several employees say their supervisors and team leaders told them they could lose their jobs if they left the factory to seek safety, according to NBC News.

Elijah Johnson said that when he asked to leave, one of his supervisors told him he’d be fired.

“Even with the weather like this, you’re still going to fire me?” the 20-year-old asked.

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Johnson told NBC News the manager responded, “Yes.”

Mayfield Consumer Products spokesperson Bob Furguson told NBC News that the allegations were “absolutely untrue” and that “employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day.” But five employees told the network they were either told they couldn’t leave or weren’t verbally told they had the option.

In addition, company CEO Troy Propes said workers were told to shelter inside the factory’s bathrooms, which had windowless concrete walls and a steel roof, because management didn’t want to send workers out into the storm, according to Kentucky.com.

“Everyone was aware of bad weather. But as we’re all taught, even as children, the first thing you do is, don’t go get in your car,” Propes said. “This is a manufacturing facility. You would never believe that — you would have thought that this would have been one of the more safest places to be. And yet this storm proved differently.”

However, after team leaders mistakenly thought the tornado was no longer a danger, they sent everyone back to work.

When the tornado hit, forklift operator Mark Saxton told NBC News, the factory tiles and concrete started falling.

“Everyone started running, so I just dropped to the ground. I got in a fetal position, and the concrete slab fell on top of me.”

Saxton said he was then picked up by the twister and ended up on the building’s collapsed roof. He survived with minor cuts and bruises.

But he said he’s still haunted by the way he was treated by higher-ups.

“It hurts, ’cause I feel like we were neglected,” Saxton said.

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David Moye