Climate change and extreme weather look like they're going to make keeping workers safe on the job even more difficult.
We don't know exactly what happened at Impact Plastics Inc., the Erwin, Tenn.-based automotive injection molder that tragically saw workers die in flooding after Hurricane Helene swept through the Eastern United States on Sept. 27.
We've heard from management and from workers who miraculously survived extreme flooding, including some who watched and could do nothing as co-workers perished in the muddy waters of the Nolichucky River.
We've also heard from the angry families of workers who died trying to escape the flooding.
Most of the key details in the company's narrative are pretty close to the workers' and their families', but there are a few exceptions: Impact Plastics founder Gerald O'Connor said managers were monitoring the weather, that employees were not told that they would be fired if they left, and that some workers remained on-site after they were told that they could go.
I suspect that there's truth in both accounts and that the key is in the timing. Five or 10 minutes — whether it was uncertainty, miscommunication or management mistakes — probably made the difference between life and death.
Just a few years ago, plastics company managers who knew nothing about pandemics learned pretty fast how to keep workers safe while keeping the machines running. It was both impressive and amazing.
Dealing with extreme weather isn't such a foreign challenge. We've all dealt with blizzards, ice storms, tornadoes and hurricanes as long as this industry has existed.
Thanks to my own human resources department, I did a deep dive into weather and natural disasters last week and found that there are numerous detailed guides and sample policies. There are pages and pages of information on hurricane preparedness alone.
But would factory managers in the mountains of western North Carolina and east Tennessee necessarily be familiar with those procedures? I suspect not as much as their colleagues on the Gulf Coast.
And this isn't just about storms and flooding. There's also a growing awareness of the danger of occupational exposure to excessive heat, and that's also an example of extreme weather connected to climate change.
The tragedy at Impact Plastics should prompt detailed discussions about safety at all employers. That should include reviewing — or creating — comprehensive workplace emergency plans. It also means ensuring that all employees receive training and participate in emergency weather drills.
Safety must be every company's top priority. Accidents do happen, but through careful training, planning and communication, they can and must be minimized.
Don Loepp is editor of Plastics News and author of the Plastics Blog.