MAYFIELD, Ky. – At least three survivors of the Mayfield Consumer Products candle factory collapse are suing the company for its actions and comments in the wake of the deadly tornado that killed at least eight workers, said Wednesday morning an employee lawyer.
Washington, DC-based attorney Amos Jones said he was working with three employees who survived after the factory was destroyed by a tornado Friday night with 110 workers inside.
The company said eight workers died and 102 survived. The State endeavors to verify this information.
“We identified six causes of action before, during and after the tornado at the Mayfield consumer products plant,” Jones said in an interview with the Courier Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. “We will be officially filing the case very soon.”
Jones declined to say what the causes of the actions are, when the lawsuit will be filed, and whether it will be filed in state or federal court.
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The only client identified by Jones is Elijah Johnson, 20. The others, he said in a statement, “are not identified by name due to the real-time retaliation that has already started.”
Jones said he sent Mayfield Consumer Products, CEO Troy Propes and spokesperson Bob Ferguson a “cease and desist” to stop claiming that employees at the candle factory could have leave at any time and that their job was not in jeopardy of departure before the tornado demolished the factory.
Jones said he is giving the company until 5 p.m. Wednesday to comply and withdraw his statements. He sent an email to the Courier Journal that was sent to the email address of The Hawskbill Group, a consulting firm of which Ferguson is CEO, at 11:50 p.m. Tuesday.
Jones said he tried to call Ferguson this morning.
Ferguson told the Courier Journal on Wednesday morning that the company had not received any cease and desist requests or notices of pending litigation. When asked if he was sticking to his earlier comments to the Courier Journal that employees’ claims that they were threatened with leaving the candle factory were “incredibly false,” he said. replied “of course”.
“We understand that we live in a very contentious world and are not surprised that profit-seeking lawyers are already looking into this area,” Ferguson told the Courier Journal Wednesday morning.
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Jones said he had “corroborating recorded evidence” that workers at the candle factory were told they could lose their jobs if they left on Friday before the tornado, but he declined to share it.
The lawyer will host a live radio show on the Washington, DC area station WGBR on Friday at 7 p.m., where survivors of the Mayfield consumer products plant “will share their stories that they were supervised in a prejudicial submission while witnessing the death of colleagues ”. according to a press release.
When asked if he worked with families of deceased employees, Jones replied: “at least one family is represented”.
Late Tuesday evening, Propes, CEO of Mayfield Consumer Products, announced in a press release that the company “was immediately hiring a team of independent experts to review the actions of our management team and employees on the night a tornado hit. hit our factory “.
“We are convinced that our team leaders have acted very appropriately and have been, in fact, heroic in their efforts to protect our employees,” said Propes. “We are hearing testimony from a few employees that our procedures were not followed. We are going to conduct a thorough review of what happened, and we are asking these experts to critique our contingency plans and to propose suggestions on how they could be improved, if necessary. “
He said the company was paying all employees $ 1,000 to “help them meet their short-term financial needs” and would continue to provide support.
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Contact Ben Tobin on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.