Before the Deadly Tornadoes, Corporations Blocked a Bill That Could Have Protected Workers
Lawmakers and corporate lobbyists stymied recent proposed legislation to protect employees’ jobs when they flee an unsafe workplace — exactly the kind of protection that could have saved the Amazon workers who died at work during tornadoes over the weekend.
Amazon truck trailers outside the damaged Amazon Distribution Center in Edwardsville, Illinois, on December 11, 2021. (Michael B. Thomas / Getty Images)
In the months before workers were reportedly barred from abandoning their job site or threatened with termination if they fled this weekend’s deadly tornadoes, corporate lobbying groups were fighting legislation to prohibit retribution against employees who seek to leave work out of fear for their safety. Amazon — which owns a warehouse where several workers were killed — and its staffing firm have links to corporate lobbying groups that have been opposing the legislation, which remains stalled.
NBC News reported Monday that workers at a Kentucky candle factory were told by superiors that they could be fired if they fled their workplace as a powerful storm approached. In Edwardsville, Illinois, one Amazon worker who died reportedly texted his girlfriend beforehand: “Amazon won’t let us leave.”
At least eight workers were subsequently killed at the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory in Kentucky, while six workers were killed in the Illinois disaster at Amazon, whose warehouses have been plagued by deadly cataclysms and allegations of hazardous conditions.
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