In an interview from her hospital bed, 21-year-old McKayla Emery said it was unclear whether she and other employees of Mayfield Consumer Products could leave as tornadoes swept through the country Friday.
“If you leave, you’re more than likely to be fired,” Emery said she overheard managers of the Mayfield, Ky., scented candle manufacturer tell other workers who wanted to leave, according to NBC News. “I heard that with my own ears.”
Though she initially wanted to stay to make more money, Emery eventually became trapped for six hours after tornadoes caused the building’s roof to cave in Friday evening. She sustained several chemical burn marks on her legs, buttocks and forehead from the candle wax as well as kidney damage.
“I kid you not, I heard a loud noise and the next thing I know, I was stuck under a cement wall,” she said. “I couldn’t move anything. I couldn’t push anything. I was stuck.”
As of Monday, Emery’s urine was black and she couldn’t move her legs because of swelling and the fact that she had been motionless for so long.
Yet, she was able to leave the rubble of her former workplace with her life. At least eight people died in the factory when the tornado hit. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said 74 people died throughout the state due to the storms.
Related
Emery isn’t the only employee who said management refused to let some of the company’s workers leave.
Haley Conder, 29, was another. She said around 15 people asked to go home after the first emergency alarm sounded outside of the facility. Hours after the first warning passed without damage to the factory, another warning was issued around 9 p.m.
At that point, she and a group of workers asked if they could go home.
“‘You can’t leave. You can’t leave. You have to stay here,’” Conder said the managers told her. “The situation was bad. Everyone was uncomfortable.”
She said they told her workers could not leave because of safety precautions and asked them to stay in hallways and bathrooms. Employees said they were sent back to work when managers mistakenly thought the tornado threat had passed.
Elijah Johnson, a 20-year-old who was working in the back of the building, also asked to speak with supervisors.
“I asked to leave and they told me I’d be fired,” Johnson said. He said they even took a roll call in hopes of finding out who had left work.
Mark Saxton, a 37-year-old forklift operator, said that he would have preferred to leave but that he wasn’t given the option. Latavia Halliburton, another Mayfield Consumer Products employee, said she witnessed workers being threatened with termination if they left.
Kyanna Parsons-Perez, an employee who was trapped in the rubble and was not interviewed by NBC News about whether employees could leave the building, detailed her experience of the catastophe in a Facebook live video.
WARNING: EXPLICIT CONENT
Company officials deny the claims that workers were prevented from leaving.
“It’s absolutely untrue,” said Bob Ferguson, a spokesman for Mayfield Consumer Products. “We’ve had a policy in place since [COVID-19] began. Employees can leave any time they want to leave and they can come back the next day.”
Autumn Kirks, a team lead at the factory who was working that night, also denied Monday afternoon that jobs were threatened.
A 24-hour hotline is available as of Monday for employees to call about hazard pay, grief counseling and other assistance, Ferguson said.
Related
Related
