It’s a new month in a new year, but before hopes turn to 2022, horror closed 2021. In December, tornadoes rolled across Kentucky destroying everything in their path, including the candle-making factory of Mayfield Consumer Products. Eight people died, dozens were injured, and a lawsuit claims it didn’t have to end this way. According to survivors, there were ample warnings about tornadoes in the area, but MCP supervisors did not cancel the night shift. Some employees even claimed that supervisors threatened to fire workers if they left their shifts early as the tornadoes approached. The company denies that claim. A spokesman called the accusation “totally untrue” and “ridiculous.”

Days after the disaster, employees filed a class-action lawsuit against MCP, alleging “flagrant indifference” to employees’ safety. An attorney for the plaintiffs, Amos Jones, charged MCP had more than enough warning, yet put its employees’ lives in peril.

“There were 100 plus people in a factory on a slab during a tornado with a public siren going,” he told WHAS, a local TV station.

Yes, but according to Attorney Ron Johnson, most employees in Kentucky can only sue employers for injuries on the job through worker’s compensation.

“The only exception to that is if the employer intentionally harms an employee,” said Johnson. He said it’ll be hard to prove that MCP managers wanted employees to suffer. “There is no way this lawsuit can hold on,” he told WHAS. 

Human resources expert Dave Jensen, founder and managing director of CTI Executive Search, a unit of CareerTrax, said no company policy would ever dictate that products or sales were more important than the lives and families of workers.

“I’m sure that’s the case here. However, as an employment consultant, I can tell you that there is such a thing as a “crunch culture” which pervades the industry, whether it’s a consumer product like this or a pharmaceutical, and so on.”

By “crunch culture,” Jensen is referring to the inherent belief on the manufacturing line that nothing stops the production process and that orders must be shipped.

“It’s entirely possible that in a crunch, with orders stacked up in production, a shift foreman or manager, someone who is not truly senior management, could have enough pressure on his or her shoulders for this quota, that they interpret that pressure as an indication that no one should leave their spots on the line and that to do so would be cause for firing,” Jensen explained. “While that person is not senior management, he or she represents senior management to the people on the production line. Therefore, I can see how the company got into this bottleneck.”

The tragedy in Kentucky closed out what began as a year of hope, as the personal care industry recovered much of what was lost during the pandemic. But as we went to press, concerns about omicron, a new coronavirus strain, had financial markets in a panic and elected officials mulling more lockdowns. Despite a multitude of threats, resilient entrepreneurs start up their beauty businesses no matter what’s happening in the news. Click here to read about how indie beauty startups weathered the storm. Also, we take a deep dive into the laundry detergent category.

Stay safe and good luck in the new year!

Tom Branna
Editorial Director
[email protected]