Photo Credit: WSOC-TV

---

Last month, Joseph Mauldin, 37, was killed in a chemical explosion at the Darling Ingredients plant in Wadesboro, NC. Mauldin was a father of two and an employee inside the plant. A worker with the company told us that less than twenty-four hours after Mauldin’s death and without a proper investigation, Darling forced its employees to come back to work.

“Darling Ingredients kills its employees and avoids accountability time and time again,” the son of one of the plant’s employees wrote online. “This is the same company that sent memos to its employees during COVID expressing joy in the highest profit ever,” the user wrote.

According to friends, Mauldin was worried about safety inside the workplace, telling them that “it was only a matter of time before someone else got hurt” following a previous chemical explosion. 

Darling Ingredients is a Texas-based corporation that produces “renewable energy” from food waste. In an e-mail to the Charlotte Observer, the company offered nothing but “hearts and prayers” to the employee’s family and friends.

Darling’s actions show the company has no concern for anything except profit. The corporation has already violated safety regulations 33 times since 2020 and faced over $16,000 in fines  this year alone. This month, after two workers were killed in their Mississippi plant in 2020, Darling stated that their safety measures were “adequate” following a sham investigation. 

The NC Department of Labor has informed the Charlotte Observer that it intends to launch an investigation. However, as with previous investigations, it is likely to result in only minor fines. Under the current system, companies can continue to subject their workers to unsafe and potentially lethal working conditions without consequence. This is because, due to their substantial financial influence, the government will never hold corporations such as Darling Ingredients accountable. The only real solution to prevent incidents arising from inadequate training, excessive workloads, and exposure to hazardous conditions is to empower workers, and this can be achieved through collective action.