By Stephen Franklin
The American Prospect
October 21, 2009
As unemployment rises, the illegal treatment of day laborers only worsens. Where's the government?
Another dead day on the street corner and Gonzalo Mejia is wondering how he will get by. He's been finding work just one or two days a week lately. Worse yet, a contractor recently stiffed him out of $400 worth of pay.
"All the time there is less work," grumbles Mejia, a short, muscular man in his mid-50s. His pals nod in agreement as they wait like hawks, ready to swoop down on the next contractor who pulls up. But it's well past 9 A.M., only three cars have trolled by in search of workers, and hardly anyone has budged off the street.
Yet it is not just the disappearance of work that troubles him and the 150 or so men killing time at Milwaukee and Belmont, once Chicago's busiest street corner for day laborers. Everything has become so difficult, so frustrating, so dangerous. For workers with minimal protections against employers who steal from their wages or sometimes leave them dead or maimed, life has lately become bare existence.
Before the housing bubble burst and the economy collapsed, the day laborers here tried to hold the line with employers at $10 an hour for basic work. Nowadays the going rate has dropped to $8 an hour, and some more desperate workers have grabbed $5-an-hour offers, saying it beats waiting around.
Day laborers here and across the U.S. have long suffered from employers who cheat them out of their wages. But there are more complaints recently about employers who give them bad checks or hire them at one rate and then pay less when the work is done or who vanish when it comes time to pay up.
"They say the job is for two or three days and they'll pay you when it's done. And then they disappear. Most of the guys have the same problems," explains Mejia, who was earning $18 an hour as a carpenter when there was work. Nowadays, he takes $12 an hour if he can get it.
Latino immigrants dominate this and nearly all of Chicago's day-labor street corners. But there has also been a rush of U.S. citizens, many of them newly unemployed or low-wage workers, as well as other immigrant groups.
Some day laborers will even continue working for weeks when they have not been paid. "They need money so desperately; they keep working, hoping to get paid. But they don't, and that's sad," says Kasia Tarczynska, a Polish-speaking worker with the Latino Union of Chicago, which serves day laborers. She works with the Eastern European day laborers -- Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Bosnians, Albanians, and others -- who have been showing up increasingly on Chicago's street corners and who suffer from roughly the same problems and abuses as the rest of the day laborers. Many are also undocumented immigrants and because of their limited English skills and the street corner's pack mentality, they stick to themselves.
The flood of new workers has worsened conditions, say the men and workers from the Latino Union, because the increased supply has driven down the wages that the day laborers had struggled to maintain. But some also have made the work dangerous for themselves and others. "They face the greatest dangers because [many of them] have not done day labor before, and they don't have the training," explains Eric Rodriguez, executive director of the Latino Union.
The arrival of new groups of increasingly desperate workers threatens to wipe out a decade of efforts to set pay and safety standards on the nation's street corners, says Nik Theodore, a University of Illinois at Chicago expert on day laborers. He is a co-author of a 2006 national study of day laborers, the first and only one of its kind. It is a grim accounting of what takes place on more than 500 street corners across the U.S. where day laborers gather early each morning to catch the best jobs.
On any single day, about 117,000 day laborers are out looking for work or are on the job, the study said. Three out of four of these workers, according to the study, are undocumented immigrants. But because workers often float in and out of the street-corner job market, it is estimated that as many as half a million people do day labor during the year.
The West Coast accounts for the greatest number of the nation's day laborers, over 40 percent, followed by the East, the Southwest, the South, and the Midwest. About 43 percent of the employers are construction contractors. Another 49 percent are either homeowners or renters. This makes the worker situation even more hazardous, since these employers are unlikely to have safety equipment or know about safety rules.
***
The danger of their work is a reality to the day laborers who reel accounts of falling off buildings, getting hit by falling construction supplies, and being trapped while digging ditches. Their stories help explain the 125 percent spike in the number of Latinos killed in construction jobs between 1992 and 2005, a figure that Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis called "unbearable" in a June speech to safety engineers in Texas. Seventy-five percent of the day laborers contacted in the 2006 survey said their work is dangerous, and one worker in five reported being injured on the job in the last year. But more than half of those injured did not get any medical care for their injuries, mostly because they couldn't afford it or the employer refused to cover them under workers' compensation, according to the survey.
Day laborers often turn to Chicago attorney Jose Rivero because he is willing to file workers' compensation cases against shady contractors with the likelihood of minimal rewards for his clients. It is not uncommon for contractors to file bankruptcy or simply vanish or to threaten workers against taking them to court or reporting them to officials, Rivero adds.
But he has been getting fewer calls lately and doesn't think that is because the work has suddenly become safer. The injuries he sees are "as horrible" as ever. "I think the economy is a big factor," he explains. Workers know that they will be "blackballed" by contractors if they talk to a lawyer, he says. Because they are desperate to hang on to the work, they don't take such risks.
But the day laborers' biggest day-to-day worry, according to the 2006 survey, is getting paid. Nearly half said they had not been paid by an employer in the months just prior to the survey, and another 48 percent told of being underpaid. There has been no comprehensive survey since 2006, but my reporting suggests that these trends are worsening.
Chris Newman, Legal Programs Director for the National Day Labor Organizing Network, which links together several dozen groups that serve day laborers, says the level of wage theft "has been amplified by the [financial stresses] downtown. Before, you would be owed $200, but now it is more likely $2,000." Theodore of the University of Illinois at Chicago adds, "I can't tell if you have unscrupulous employers taking advantage of what's happening or it's the financial problems facing those higher up in the contracting chain."
***
As the ranks of the workers on the streets have swollen in the last decade, day labor activists like Newman have steadily complained about the federal government's failure to stop the wage theft or to halt the unsafe conditions the workers face. Now, they say the Obama administration should take these steps:
First, the Labor Department should increase the ranks of investigators in its Wage and Hour Division, the office responsible for making sure employers do not cheat workers out of their wages. Kim Bobo, author of the recent book Wage Theft in America and head of Interfaith Worker Justice, a Chicago-based group organization, praises the administration's plans to hire several hundred more investigators. "But that's not enough. They need double the number of investigators," she says.
Second, employers need to live in fear that will they face stiff fines for violating federal wage and worker-safety laws. They should not be allowed to negotiate down the penalties so that overworked federal bureaucrats can clear the cases. The likelihood of serious penalties should increase for employers with repeat violations. "Every time we file a case, [the Labor Department] settles it for 50 cents on the dollar, and that means workers don't get what they are owed," says Bobo, whose organization operates a network of worker centers around the U.S. She adds that the government should make employers' violation records more "transparent" and accessible so businesses can be tracked.
Third, the government should develop direct ties with day-labor and worker centers, creating a system that will regularly inform workers of their rights and educate them on safe workplace practices. Theodore says the government should use the locations as worker development centers, where they can train and improve workers' skills. By authorizing the centers to directly file workers' complaints, the government can also expand its investigative outreach to the workers, he says.
Fourth, federal offices serving day laborers should be more accessible to workers, especially in the case of undocumented immigrants who are both fearful of visiting government buildings and who usually cannot enter them because they lack proper identification. "The agencies are designed to serve bankers, not low-wage workers who cannot make a 3 P.M. meeting," Bobo says. So, too, she says there need to be more government workers able to communicate with the largely Latino day-laborer work force. After the Katrina disaster, the government was hard-pressed, she recalls, to cope with the number of Spanish-speaking day laborers drawn to the recovery work in New Orleans.
To Newman, however, the most important step is "harmonizing" the government's immigration and labor-enforcement policies. "If undocumented immigrants are unable to come forward and form unions and file complaints and get redress from unscrupulous practices, then the bad guys will continue on," he says.
As for prospects of the Labor Department improving its day-to-day performance, he is quite upbeat about Solis. "The team that she is assembling is fantastic," he says. "There are all the indications that the U.S. will get its Labor Department back after eight years of self-mutilation."
Solis, the daughter of Latino farmworker immigrants, tells me her agency is hiring 250 investigators, some of whom will be bilingual. She wanted more, "but we didn't have the money." Besides "looking at increasing penalties" against employers who break the laws, she also plans to create a strike force to focus on firms with the "most egregious abuses." If the companies cooperate, the agency will offer them training and assistance, she says. And if they don't want to comply, "we are not going to sit around," she adds.
The agency will closely investigate how employers who use the government's recovery funds treat their workers. "They better know we are taking a different approach here," she says. As for workers' fears of dealing with a government agency, she vows to increase the agency's links with organizations that "have the trust of the community."
***
Help dealing with abusive employers or those who put him in dangerous situations could not come fast enough for Guillermo Caicero. Not long ago he got into an argument with a contractor who promised him $15 an hour but paid him only $10 an hour when the work was done. He complained and the employer called the police. But the police "didn't do anything," he says.
Four years ago he tumbled off a roof and broke a leg, he says. Several months ago, the 50-year-old day laborer dislocated an arm on the job. Not long ago a pipe also fell and hit his head, sending him to a hospital. But the contractor refused to pay for treatment or time lost, and Caicero was not covered by workers' comp. He went to a county hospital and was able to get free care, Caicero says.
Despite it all, here he is, on the corner, waiting and waiting.
Stephen Franklin is a former labor writer for the Chicago Tribune and author of Three Strikes: Labor's Heartland Losses and What They Mean for Working Americans (2001).
http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=forgotten_corners_of_the_economy
Showing posts with label Labor Violations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Labor Violations. Show all posts
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Feds indict S.C. chicken plant
House of Raeford-owned company is accused of deliberately hiring undocumented workers
By Franco Ordoñez
The Charlotte Observer
July 17, 2009
A federal grand jury this week charged that a company owned by N.C.-based House of Raeford Farms knowingly hired illegal immigrants at a plant in South Carolina.
The government's 50-count indictment against Columbia Farms charges that it hired undocumented workers from 2000 until October 2008, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Greenville, S.C., plant.
The latest indictment illustrates how federal prosecutors have moved up the corporate ladder, charging workers, managers and now the company.
“These were not acts that occurred outside of the knowledge of the corporation,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald of Columbia.
House of Raeford, a family-run business, is one of the nation's top chicken and turkey producers, with operations in the Carolinas and Louisiana, nearly $600 million in annual sales, and 6,000 employees.
“For nearly a year Columbia Farms, Inc. has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the federal government in every step of their investigation,” House of Raeford said in a statement. “Columbia Farms contends that it has followed all state and federal employment laws and looks forward to vindicating the company's position in a court of law.”
Marvin Johnson, 82, who launched the private company, is the chairman. His son, Bob, is the chief executive officer. They live in Eastern North Carolina.
In a February 2008 series on workplace safety in the poultry industry, the Observer reported that some House of Raeford managers knowingly employed illegal immigrants. Current and former supervisors said the plants preferred undocumented workers because those workers feared losing their jobs or being deported.
Investigation could widen
The yearlong investigation has already resulted in charges against Greenville plant manager Barry Cronic, human resources manager Elaine Crump and about a dozen supervisors.
In October, federal authorities raided the plant, detaining more than 300 workers. Most have been deported.
Peter Anderson, a Charlotte attorney and former federal prosecutor, said indicting the company now could mean the case is nearing its completion. But he said investigators may also continue to press others indicted for additional information on what their bosses knew. “Sometimes a bad actor in the immigration context might think the investigation is over,” said Anderson, who is a candidate for U.S. attorney in western North Carolina. “And then all of a sudden the debriefing of the cooperating executives reveals a whole other slew of additional types of violations – fraud, kickbacks, bribery, environmental, OSHA.”
Lisa Griffin, a law professor at Duke University, said indicting a company is generally a sign the government has found widespread problems.
If found guilty, the company could face stiff fines, mandatory audits and a loss of licenses and government contracts.
Crump, Cronic and the company itself are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Greenville this month. A trial for Crump and Cronic was previously set for November.
Since the initial arrests, dozens of workers have left their jobs. The company has been hiring fewer Latinos and has turned to state prisons to fill production lines.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/838052.html
By Franco Ordoñez
The Charlotte Observer
July 17, 2009
A federal grand jury this week charged that a company owned by N.C.-based House of Raeford Farms knowingly hired illegal immigrants at a plant in South Carolina.
The government's 50-count indictment against Columbia Farms charges that it hired undocumented workers from 2000 until October 2008, when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided the Greenville, S.C., plant.
The latest indictment illustrates how federal prosecutors have moved up the corporate ladder, charging workers, managers and now the company.
“These were not acts that occurred outside of the knowledge of the corporation,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald of Columbia.
House of Raeford, a family-run business, is one of the nation's top chicken and turkey producers, with operations in the Carolinas and Louisiana, nearly $600 million in annual sales, and 6,000 employees.
“For nearly a year Columbia Farms, Inc. has cooperated and will continue to cooperate with the federal government in every step of their investigation,” House of Raeford said in a statement. “Columbia Farms contends that it has followed all state and federal employment laws and looks forward to vindicating the company's position in a court of law.”
Marvin Johnson, 82, who launched the private company, is the chairman. His son, Bob, is the chief executive officer. They live in Eastern North Carolina.
In a February 2008 series on workplace safety in the poultry industry, the Observer reported that some House of Raeford managers knowingly employed illegal immigrants. Current and former supervisors said the plants preferred undocumented workers because those workers feared losing their jobs or being deported.
Investigation could widen
The yearlong investigation has already resulted in charges against Greenville plant manager Barry Cronic, human resources manager Elaine Crump and about a dozen supervisors.
In October, federal authorities raided the plant, detaining more than 300 workers. Most have been deported.
Peter Anderson, a Charlotte attorney and former federal prosecutor, said indicting the company now could mean the case is nearing its completion. But he said investigators may also continue to press others indicted for additional information on what their bosses knew. “Sometimes a bad actor in the immigration context might think the investigation is over,” said Anderson, who is a candidate for U.S. attorney in western North Carolina. “And then all of a sudden the debriefing of the cooperating executives reveals a whole other slew of additional types of violations – fraud, kickbacks, bribery, environmental, OSHA.”
Lisa Griffin, a law professor at Duke University, said indicting a company is generally a sign the government has found widespread problems.
If found guilty, the company could face stiff fines, mandatory audits and a loss of licenses and government contracts.
Crump, Cronic and the company itself are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Greenville this month. A trial for Crump and Cronic was previously set for November.
Since the initial arrests, dozens of workers have left their jobs. The company has been hiring fewer Latinos and has turned to state prisons to fill production lines.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/business/story/838052.html
Monday, September 8, 2008
State probe doesn't help Miss. company's image
State probe doesn't help Miss. company's image
Fort Mill Times, SC
By SHELIA BYRD
September 08, 2008
Many lawmakers who voted for the new state law that penalizes companies that hire illegal immigrants probably didn't expect Howard Industries Inc. to be considered the first possible violator.
The Laurel-based company has been a bedrock of the economy in south Mississippi, employing some 4,000 workers. The private, family run business was founded in the 1960s.
State lawmakers, largely persuaded by a promise of job creation, approved a $31.5 million, taxpayer-backed incentive plan in 2002 aimed at helping Howard Industries expand its operations. The company produces dozens of products, including electrical transformers, medical supplies, even the scanners in grocery stores.
It's known across the country, but lately, not just because of its product line.
Howard Industries became the site of the largest workplace raid in U.S. history on Aug. 25. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on the Laurel plant and rounded up nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants.
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/282458.html
Fort Mill Times, SC
By SHELIA BYRD
September 08, 2008
Many lawmakers who voted for the new state law that penalizes companies that hire illegal immigrants probably didn't expect Howard Industries Inc. to be considered the first possible violator.
The Laurel-based company has been a bedrock of the economy in south Mississippi, employing some 4,000 workers. The private, family run business was founded in the 1960s.
State lawmakers, largely persuaded by a promise of job creation, approved a $31.5 million, taxpayer-backed incentive plan in 2002 aimed at helping Howard Industries expand its operations. The company produces dozens of products, including electrical transformers, medical supplies, even the scanners in grocery stores.
It's known across the country, but lately, not just because of its product line.
Howard Industries became the site of the largest workplace raid in U.S. history on Aug. 25. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents descended on the Laurel plant and rounded up nearly 600 suspected illegal immigrants.
http://www.fortmilltimes.com/124/story/282458.html
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Raid's Outcome May Signal a Retreat In Immigration Strategy, Critics Say
Raid's Outcome May Signal a Retreat In Immigration Strategy, Critics Say
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 2, 2008; A13
The federal government's handling of a massive immigration raid at a Mississippi manufacturing plant last week has led critics to suggest that the Bush administration is backpedaling from its aggressive use of criminal charges and fast-tracked trials against illegal immigrants caught at workplaces.
U.S. officials reject any suggestion of a retreat or a shift in strategy in the Aug. 25 raid at a Howard Industries transformer plant in Laurel, Miss. In the nation's largest immigration enforcement operation at a single work site, federal agents arrested nearly 600 illegal immigrants there but charged only eight criminally, turning over the rest for civil deportation proceedings, as they have in the past.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency "continues to target egregious employers . . . to identify individuals engaging in identity theft, and we seek criminal charges where appropriate," spokeswoman Kelly A. Nantel said.
Nonetheless, it was a stark departure from the way authorities conducted the previous record-setting sweep 15 weeks earlier.
On May 12, immigration agents apprehended 389 illegal immigrants at an Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 300 were charged, convicted and sentenced within 10 days in group trials in temporary courts set up at a fairground. Most pleaded guilty to document fraud, receiving five-month prison sentences.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102358.html
By Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 2, 2008; A13
The federal government's handling of a massive immigration raid at a Mississippi manufacturing plant last week has led critics to suggest that the Bush administration is backpedaling from its aggressive use of criminal charges and fast-tracked trials against illegal immigrants caught at workplaces.
U.S. officials reject any suggestion of a retreat or a shift in strategy in the Aug. 25 raid at a Howard Industries transformer plant in Laurel, Miss. In the nation's largest immigration enforcement operation at a single work site, federal agents arrested nearly 600 illegal immigrants there but charged only eight criminally, turning over the rest for civil deportation proceedings, as they have in the past.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency "continues to target egregious employers . . . to identify individuals engaging in identity theft, and we seek criminal charges where appropriate," spokeswoman Kelly A. Nantel said.
Nonetheless, it was a stark departure from the way authorities conducted the previous record-setting sweep 15 weeks earlier.
On May 12, immigration agents apprehended 389 illegal immigrants at an Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. Nearly 300 were charged, convicted and sentenced within 10 days in group trials in temporary courts set up at a fairground. Most pleaded guilty to document fraud, receiving five-month prison sentences.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/01/AR2008090102358.html
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Agriprocessors plant searched
www.gazetteonline.com
Agriprocessors plant searched
Article published: Aug 29, 2008
POSTVILLE The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and assisting agencies executed a search warrant today at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville.
Bob Brammer, spokesman for Iowa Attorney General's Office said no arrests were made today and no further information was available.
The office is serving as the prosecutor in the enforcement of state laws in connection with investigations stemming from the May 12 raid at the meat processing plant.
The Allamakee County Attorney requested the Attorney General's Office to take on this role.
More than 300 illegal workers arrested in May at the Postville plant have been charged and sentenced for using false identification to obtain jobs and other federal charges. Some received prison time and others were sentenced to probation and deported.
Two supervisors at the plant recently pleaded to charges of aiding and abetting workers in obtaining false identification and hiring illegal immigrants.
The investigation is ongoing.
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080829/NEWS/708299920/0/business
Agriprocessors plant searched
Article published: Aug 29, 2008
POSTVILLE The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and assisting agencies executed a search warrant today at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville.
Bob Brammer, spokesman for Iowa Attorney General's Office said no arrests were made today and no further information was available.
The office is serving as the prosecutor in the enforcement of state laws in connection with investigations stemming from the May 12 raid at the meat processing plant.
The Allamakee County Attorney requested the Attorney General's Office to take on this role.
More than 300 illegal workers arrested in May at the Postville plant have been charged and sentenced for using false identification to obtain jobs and other federal charges. Some received prison time and others were sentenced to probation and deported.
Two supervisors at the plant recently pleaded to charges of aiding and abetting workers in obtaining false identification and hiring illegal immigrants.
The investigation is ongoing.
http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080829/NEWS/708299920/0/business
Sunday, July 27, 2008
After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries
By JULIA PRESTON
The New York Times
July 27, 2008
POSTVILLE, Iowa . When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13.
Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.
One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant's killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. "I was very sad," he
said, "and I felt like I was a slave."
At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.
But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.
Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Under-age workers said their bosses knew how young they were.
Because of the dangers of the work, it is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ anyone under 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant.
In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18, and would fire any under-age worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.
To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general's office, officials for the three agencies said.
Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration lawyer in private practice in Des Moines, is representing many of the young workers. She said she had so far identified 27 workers under 18 who were employed in the packing areas of the plant, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, including some who were not arrested in the raid.
"Some of these boys don't even shave," Ms. Parras Konrad said. "They're goofy. They're teenagers."
At a meeting here Saturday, three members of the House Hispanic Caucus . including its chairman, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois . heard seven immigrant minors describe working in the Agriprocessors plant.
Iowa labor officials said they rarely encounter child labor cases even though the state has many meatpacking plants.
"We don't normally have many under-age folks working in our state," said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a lawyer for the state labor department, who said she could not comment specifically on the Agriprocessors investigation.
Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.
Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence.
While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant. The immigrant saw "a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees." Jewish managers oversee the slaughtering and processing of meat at Agriprocessors to ensure kosher standards.
In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. "The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it," the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause "serious injuries."
So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.
A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said the company could not comment on an active investigation.
"The company has two objectives in mind: to restore its production to meet the demands of the kosher food market and to be in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws," Mr. Lubinsky said. Reports of labor violations at the plant "remain allegations only, that no agency has charged the company with," he said.
The Agriprocessors kosher plant here has been owned and operated since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family. His son Sholom was the plant's top manager until he was removed
by his father in May after the raid. The plant's products are distributed across the country under brands including Aaron's Best and Aaron's Choice.
Most of the young immigrants were hired at Agriprocessors after they presented false Social Security cards or other documents saying they were older than they were.
But in an interview her, Elmer L. said he had told floor supervisors that he was under 18. He asked that his last name not be published on advice of his lawyer, Ms. Parras Konrad, because he is a minor in deportation proceedings.
"They asked me how old I was," Elmer L. said. "They could see that sometimes I could not keep up with the work."
Elmer L. said that he regularly worked 17 hours a day at the plant and was paid $7.25 an hour. He said he was not paid overtime consistently.
"My work was very hard, because they didn't give me my breaks, and I wasn't getting very much sleep," he said. "They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained."
Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.
He was sent to a hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.
The next day, as he was lifting a cow's tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker's injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.
Gilda O., a Guatemalan who said she was 16, said she worked the night shift plucking chickens. She said she was working to help her parents pay off debts.
Another Guatemalan, Joel R., who gave his age as 15, said he dropped out of school in Postville after the eighth grade and took a job at Agriprocessors because his mother became ill. He said he worked from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. in a section called "quality control," a job he described as relatively easy that he got because he speaks English.
But he said he and other workers were under constant pressure from supervisors. "They yell at us when we don't hurry up, when we don't work fast enough for them," said Joel R. He and Gilda O. did not want their last names published because they are illegal immigrants and they were
not arrested in the raid.
Most of the young immigrants have been released from detention but remain in deportation proceedings. Ms. Parras Konrad said she will ask immigration authorities to grant them special four-year temporary visas, known as U visas, which are offered to immigrants who assist in law
enforcement investigations. Iowa labor officials are considering supporting some of those requests, Ms. Sheridan-Lucht said.
Agriprocessors executives said they had begun an overhaul of hiring and labor practices, starting with hiring a compliance officer, James G. Martin, a former United States attorney in Missouri. In an interview, Mr. Martin said the company had contracted with an outside firm, the Jacobson
Staffing Company, to handle its hiring, and new safety officers, including one former federal work safety inspector.
Mark Lauritsen, a vice president for the International Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant, said he remained skeptical. "They are the poster
child for how a rogue company can exploit a broken immigration system," Mr. Lauritsen said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html
The New York Times
July 27, 2008
POSTVILLE, Iowa . When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 under-age workers, some as young as 13.
Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.
One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant's killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. "I was very sad," he
said, "and I felt like I was a slave."
At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.
But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.
Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Under-age workers said their bosses knew how young they were.
Because of the dangers of the work, it is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ anyone under 18 on the floor of a meatpacking plant.
In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18, and would fire any under-age worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.
To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general's office, officials for the three agencies said.
Sonia Parras Konrad, an immigration lawyer in private practice in Des Moines, is representing many of the young workers. She said she had so far identified 27 workers under 18 who were employed in the packing areas of the plant, most of them illegal immigrants from Guatemala, including some who were not arrested in the raid.
"Some of these boys don't even shave," Ms. Parras Konrad said. "They're goofy. They're teenagers."
At a meeting here Saturday, three members of the House Hispanic Caucus . including its chairman, Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois . heard seven immigrant minors describe working in the Agriprocessors plant.
Iowa labor officials said they rarely encounter child labor cases even though the state has many meatpacking plants.
"We don't normally have many under-age folks working in our state," said Gail Sheridan-Lucht, a lawyer for the state labor department, who said she could not comment specifically on the Agriprocessors investigation.
Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.
Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking on Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence.
While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant. The immigrant saw "a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees." Jewish managers oversee the slaughtering and processing of meat at Agriprocessors to ensure kosher standards.
In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. "The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it," the informant said, adding that the blow did not cause "serious injuries."
So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.
A spokesman for Agriprocessors, Menachem Lubinsky, said the company could not comment on an active investigation.
"The company has two objectives in mind: to restore its production to meet the demands of the kosher food market and to be in full compliance with all local, state and federal laws," Mr. Lubinsky said. Reports of labor violations at the plant "remain allegations only, that no agency has charged the company with," he said.
The Agriprocessors kosher plant here has been owned and operated since 1987 by Aaron Rubashkin and his family. His son Sholom was the plant's top manager until he was removed
by his father in May after the raid. The plant's products are distributed across the country under brands including Aaron's Best and Aaron's Choice.
Most of the young immigrants were hired at Agriprocessors after they presented false Social Security cards or other documents saying they were older than they were.
But in an interview her, Elmer L. said he had told floor supervisors that he was under 18. He asked that his last name not be published on advice of his lawyer, Ms. Parras Konrad, because he is a minor in deportation proceedings.
"They asked me how old I was," Elmer L. said. "They could see that sometimes I could not keep up with the work."
Elmer L. said that he regularly worked 17 hours a day at the plant and was paid $7.25 an hour. He said he was not paid overtime consistently.
"My work was very hard, because they didn't give me my breaks, and I wasn't getting very much sleep," he said. "They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained."
Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.
He was sent to a hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.
The next day, as he was lifting a cow's tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker's injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.
Gilda O., a Guatemalan who said she was 16, said she worked the night shift plucking chickens. She said she was working to help her parents pay off debts.
Another Guatemalan, Joel R., who gave his age as 15, said he dropped out of school in Postville after the eighth grade and took a job at Agriprocessors because his mother became ill. He said he worked from 5.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m. in a section called "quality control," a job he described as relatively easy that he got because he speaks English.
But he said he and other workers were under constant pressure from supervisors. "They yell at us when we don't hurry up, when we don't work fast enough for them," said Joel R. He and Gilda O. did not want their last names published because they are illegal immigrants and they were
not arrested in the raid.
Most of the young immigrants have been released from detention but remain in deportation proceedings. Ms. Parras Konrad said she will ask immigration authorities to grant them special four-year temporary visas, known as U visas, which are offered to immigrants who assist in law
enforcement investigations. Iowa labor officials are considering supporting some of those requests, Ms. Sheridan-Lucht said.
Agriprocessors executives said they had begun an overhaul of hiring and labor practices, starting with hiring a compliance officer, James G. Martin, a former United States attorney in Missouri. In an interview, Mr. Martin said the company had contracted with an outside firm, the Jacobson
Staffing Company, to handle its hiring, and new safety officers, including one former federal work safety inspector.
Mark Lauritsen, a vice president for the International Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has tried to organize the plant, said he remained skeptical. "They are the poster
child for how a rogue company can exploit a broken immigration system," Mr. Lauritsen said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/us/27immig.html
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