Some Kilgore Employees Back At Work, Others Off Indefinitely
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TOONE, Tenn-It’s been a rough few weeks for employees at Aunt Berta’s in Toone. They’re just now getting back to normal after Kilgore’s temporary shutdown. “Our business has picked up since they went back to work and you can tell from the register receipts,” Doris Wooden, an employee at Aunt Berta’s said. After the explosion in February that killed one employee, most workers were laid off for at least a week. Workers said last week administrative employees returned but those in production were told to go home and come back Monday due to unresolved safety issues. This week, about 25 percent of Kilgore’s 500 workers were allowed back. The rest were sent home indefinitely due to lack of work. “This is the first full week for many of the employees,” Wooden said. With only two major businesses in Toone, Kilgore being the biggest, employees like those at Aunt Berta’s said they depend on these companies for their livelihood. “That’s how we stay in business,” Wooden said. “If the saw mill and Kilgore wasn’t here we couldn’t make it.” For workers who have been laid off now for a third time since the explosion, they said they’re unsure when they’ll get a paycheck from Kilgore again.
