By Emil McLeod
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene has left two workers at Impact Plastics in Erwin, Tennessee dead, with another four workers still missing. According to family members of the dead and missing interviewed by monopoly media, management threatened to fire workers if they left the plant.
The hurricane hit on September 27th, causing devastating flooding in Erwin. When the initial flooding began, workers were told to move their cars, but to remain at the plant and continue their shifts. Workers interviewed by national and local monopoly media outlets stated that they told management that they should evacuate, but management said that the conditions were not bad enough to warrant an evacuation, even as the flood waters began to submerge the parking lot. As the flooding intensified, a small contingent of workers attempted to leave, in defiance of the order to remain at the plant, taking refuge on a truck. The truck was hit by debris, causing two workers to fall into the water. The truck then flipped over and capsized, forcing those workers seeking refuge to abandon it.
Workers also reported to monopoly media that as the flooding and storm continued to intensify, and more workers attempted to leave to seek safety, management informed them that if they left they would be fired. The company denies this, of course, stating in a public press release: “At no time were employees told that they would be fired if they left the facility. For employees who were non-English speaking, bilingual employees were among the group of managers who delivered the message.” The majority of workers who spoke to the monopoly press denied that Impact Plastics told workers they could leave to seek safety, and maintain that management told them to stay at the plant and continue working. Only when a nearby power plant shut down due to damage from flooding was management forced to shut down operations and call for the workers to go home—at the point when the workers could no longer be exploited.
The two workers that were killed in the storm were Mexican immigrants. The plastics industry exploits the labor of some of the deepest layers of the working class, especially women and Latino workers. Many of these workers are immigrants who often are fleeing the ravages of imperialism in their own countries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Latino workers make up 20% of workers within the plastics industry, making them the second largest racial group employed, while women make up 32% of workers in the industry.
Hurricane Helene is the second-deadliest hurricane to hit the mainland United States in 50 years and is a product of the ongoing environmental destruction and degradation wrought by imperialism, which is causing an increase of natural disasters, both in frequency and intensity, around the world. The working people across the whole world continue to bear the brunt of these disasters while the capitalists’ profits and wellbeing remain largely unaffected.
The two workers killed were not killed by Hurricane Helene, but by the capitalists of Impact Plastics, who sacrificed these workers in the interests of Capital. A similar incident happened in 2021 to eight workers at a candle factory in Kentucky and six workers at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, who were killed by a tornado that swept through the region. In both cases the capitalists ordered the workers to keep working under threat of termination despite the impending disaster.
