Kentucky candle factory that threatened to fire workers during tornado is closing

[Jilly_in_VA]

A Kentucky candle factory that was destroyed by a killer tornado — and where workers said they were threatened with dismissal if they left their posts before it hit — is closing and half the employees are being laid off.

Mayfield Consumer Products said in a Jan. 10 filing under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act that it plans to shift the remaining 250 or so workers to a new plant in the nearby town of Hickory that will be "up and running as soon as practical."

"Although many employees are being offered a transfer to the HP facility, there will not be room for the entire population to move to Hickory Point," plant manager Michael Staten said in the notice. "Those employees not offered a transfer to the new facility will be laid off."He said the company expects "all layoffs in Mayfield to be permanent."

Company spokesman Bob Ferguson later told The Louisville Courier Journal, which first broke the news about the layoffs, that the company is "committed to the rehiring of everyone and to meeting or exceeding the employment levels it had prior to the tornado.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mayfield-candle-factory-destroyed-deadly-kentucky-tornado-closing-rcna12469
_____________________________________________________________________
This is what happens in right-to-slave states.

[MichMan]

1. Not sure what would have been different in a non RTW state.

The entire factory was destroyed by a tornado.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. You would have had

a union fighting for the workers. That's what would have been different.

[MichMan]

3. Unionization is permitted in RTW states

Workers are still free to unionize and existing unions continue to represent their members and bargain for contracts.

The only difference is that individual workers are able to opt out thus potentially depriving the union of their dues.

Even had they been unionized, that doesn't mean that their contract would have required them to be paid full wages & prohibiting any layoffs, even if their workplace was destroyed.

I live in a very strong union state (that is also RTW). People are laid off all the time from unionized employers if there is no work for them.

[Jilly_in_VA]

6. Unions

are a lot weaker in RTS states. I lived in an RTS state for 35 years. Damn few unions, those that were mostly were pretty weak except for one I knew of, and unionizing efforts werre discouraged, sometimes in very illegal ways. When I applied for my first job in nursing, I was told at one place that if Iwas caught in any type of union organizing activity, I would be immediately fired. I am not afraid to name the place if asked either.

[MichMan]

7. Not in my state which is the birthplace of the union movement

The UAW, Education, and State & Local government unions still have considerable influence

[Jilly_in_VA]

8. Lucky you n/t

[MichMan]

5. Ford has a major UAW represented plant in Louisville

They sometimes have layoffs when workers aren't needed for whatever reason.

I imagine that the plant being obliterated by a tornado would be one of those reasons.