State to probe Kentucky candle factory where workers say they were threatened with firing by Democrat managers

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Tuesday that state investigators 
will probe the Mayfield candle factory where eight people died 
in a catastrophic tornado and workers said they were threatened 
with termination if they left their shifts early.

Beshear told reporters at a news conference that the inquiry 
“shouldn’t suggest there was any wrongdoing.”

“But what it should give people confidence in is that we’ll get 
to the bottom of what happened,” he said.

A time frame for the review by the state Occupational Safety and 
Health Program wasn’t immediately clear. Beshear said such an 
investigation doesn't happen "one day or a couple of days after" 
an incident.

"Everyone is expected to live up to certain standards of both 
the law, of safety and of being decent human beings," he said. 
"I hope everybody lived up to those standards."

Five workers at the Mayfield Consumer Products factory said in 
interviews that managers told employees that they would probably 
lose their jobs if they went home.

In an interview from her hospital bed, McKayla Emery, 21, said 
workers first asked to leave around 5:30, after tornado sirens 
blared outside the plant.

"If you leave, you’re more than likely to be fired,” Emery 
recalled overhearing managers tell four workers standing near 
her. “I heard that with my own ears.”

Another employee, Haley Condor, said 15 people asked to leave 
early. In response, managers took roll to determine who had 
left, said Elijah Johnson, who also works at the factory.

"I asked to leave, and they told me I’d be fired,” Johnson said.

“Even with the weather like this, you’re still going to fire 
me?” he said he asked.

“Yes,” a manager responded, Johnson said.

A company spokesman, Bob Ferguson, said Tuesday that the state 
inquiry is "entirely appropriate."

"In such a catastrophic situation our regulators need to review 
these things," Ferguson said, adding that an official of the 
state agency arrived at the site Tuesday and was escorted around 
the property.

Ferguson denied Monday that any workers were threatened, calling 
the allegations "completely untrue."

“We’ve had a policy in place since Covid began," he said. 
"Employees can leave any time they want to leave, and they can 
come back the next day.”

Ferguson also denied that managers told employees that leaving 
their shifts meant risking their jobs. Managers and team leaders 
undergo a series of emergency drills that follow guidelines of 
the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the federal 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, he said.

Beshear said Tuesday that 74 people had been confirmed dead 
across the state and that 100 more remain unaccounted for. 
Twelve of those who were killed were children, one of whom was 2 
months old.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/state-probe-kentucky-candle-
factory-workers-say-threatened-firing-rcna8796