Workers allege nightmare conditions at Kentucky start up JD Vance helped fund [View all]

[pepperbear]

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/13/politics/kentucky-startup-appharvest-jd-vance/index.html#webview=1

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It’s not just a good investment opportunity, it’s a great business that’s making a big difference in the world,” Vance proclaimed in a Fox Business interview on the day the company went public in February 2021. Last year, facing hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, AppHarvest declared bankruptcy.

The rise and fall of the company, and Vance’s role in it, cuts against his image as a champion for the working class — an image that helped catapult him to the top of the Republican ticket as Donald Trump’s running mate.

A CNN review of public documents, and interviews with a dozen former workers, shows that AppHarvest not only failed as a business after pursuing rapid growth, but also provided a grim job experience for many of the working-class Kentuckians Vance has vowed to help.

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A spokesperson for Vance, Luke Schroeder, said in a statement that the Ohio senator “was not aware of the operational decisions regarding hiring, employee benefits, or other workplace policies which were made after he departed AppHarvest’s board. Like all early supporters, JD believed in AppHarvest’s mission and wishes the company would have succeeded.”

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