August 27, 2008
Obama comments shocking, says Postville plant
By TONY LEYS
tleys@dmreg.com
Agriprocessors fired back Tuesday at presidential candidate Barack Obama for suggesting the meatpacking plant face punishment over allegations that it knowingly hired underage workers and illegal immigrants.
A lawyer for the embattled Postville company said Obama's comments at a Davenport campaign rally Monday were unfair to the company. "Before he made public accusations accusing a meatpacking plant of hiring 13- and 14-year-olds 'only ... to avoid paying people decent wages and providing them decent benefits' and declared that the minors were assigned to work with 'buzz saws and cleavers,' did Senator Obama look at the evidence or consider the plant's categorical denial of these allegations?" said the lawyer, Nathan Lewin of Washington, D.C.
Lewin chided Obama for declaring the plant in the wrong before investigations are complete. "This is a shocking statement from a former president of the Harvard Law Review and former constitutional law professor who has sworn, as a United States senator, to uphold the Constitution, which prescribes a presumption of innocence until guilt is proved beyond a reasonable doubt."Obama didn't name Agriprocessors at the Davenport event, but he alluded to the company in response to a woman who mentioned Postville in a question about immigration.
"We've got to crack down on employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers," he said. "When you read about a meatpacking plant hiring 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds - that is some of the most dangerous, difficult work there is. ... They have kids in there wielding buzz saws and cleavers? It's ridiculous. And the only reason they're hiring these folks is because they want to avoid paying decent wages and providing decent benefits."Obama also mentioned that he'd learned of some of the details from the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has sharply criticized Agriprocessors and tried to organize its workers.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080827/NEWS/808270378/-1/ENT05
