Workers advocates push for legislative protections after employee deaths [Video]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A statewide coalition of advocacy, labor, and faith groups has pushed for lawmakers to pass more workers’ protection measures after employees at Impact Plastics in Erwin were swept away in Hurricane Helene’s floodwaters last month.

The demands for stricter safety laws has come after some Impact Plastics employees alleged the company threatened they’d be fired if they went home, despite warnings and forecasts of flooding from Helene.

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The company has denied any wrongdoing. Impact Plastics’ CEO, Gerald O’Conner, said in a video statement the company never told workers they’d be fired if they left, and to his knowledge, no one died on the property.

“There was time to escape,” O’Conner said in the video.

However, the group Jobs with Justice of East Tennessee, which is part of the Tennessee For All Coalition, argued that the employees never should have been there in the first …