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Plant raid raises questions of labor abuses, kashrut
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BY: Susan H. Kahn Assistant Editor
Meat cutting is bloody work, and harsh chemicals are needed to clean the slaughterhouse floors.
At Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, a 26-year-old Guatemalan immigrant worked on the night cleaning crew without a uniform or a mask. Fumes from the chemicals have already compromised the condition of the young man’s lungs and irritated his eyes.
His story was one of many that Cleveland Heights resident Lynn Tramonte heard during her recent visit to Postville, Iowa. Tramonte is policy director of America’s Voice, an advocacy organization established after Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill last year. She accompanied Congressmen Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Albio Sires (D-N.J.) of the House Hispanic Caucus on a fact-finding mission.
In May, federal immigration agents raided Agriprocessors and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants. In the ensuing “fast-tracked” legal process that was completed in only four days, nearly 300 Spanish-speaking defendants pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to document fraud and identity theft. The majority were sentenced to a five-month prison term, to be followed by deportation.
Immigration lawyers like Cleveland’s David Leopold and Lucas Guttentag, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, have denounced this fast-tracked process and the plea deal offered by the government as exploitative. The raid has also drawn public criticism for what some see as harsh punishment of the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers for flagrant labor abuses. So far, two Agriprocessors supervisors have been indicted, but the plant’s owners and top management have not been charged.
“ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had it backward,” maintains Tramonte. “The raid interrupted an ongoing investigation by the Iowa state labor department. ICE ignored that, and they didn’t bring in any labor group.”
She recounts an emotional discussion she witnessed with a group of six “very nervous” immigrant women, where they described working a minimum of 12 hours a day with no overtime pay and no vacation time. “When they got their pay, they’d find mysterious deductions. But they needed the money, so they took it.”
Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations. In addition, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual har-assment at the plant, an issue also mentioned by the women Tramonte met.
“Talking to the immigrants was very powerful,” she says. “I felt personally ashamed of my government for treating these hard-working people as hardened criminals.”
As young as 14
It is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ workers 17 or younger in the slaughter and packing areas of a meat plant because of the dangers of the work. But more than 20 underage workers, some as young as 14, were swept up in the May raid. Last week, the Iowa Labor Commissioner sent dozens of alleged child-labor violations to the state’s attorney general for prosecution. The plant could face up to $1 million in fines stemming from the alleged hiring of 57 juveniles, ages 14 to 17. However, the company claims the government denied Agriprocessors’ requests to identify underage workers so they could be terminated.
A rally in Postville on July 27 drew 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy, rabbis and activists, protesting working conditions at Agriprocessors and calling for legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. It also drew about 150 people organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes these proposals.
“Polling shows people are consistently in favor of a solution to our current illegal immigrant problem that includes a path to citizenship,” says Tramonte. “But the minority who are opposed are very vocal.”
Hardship all around
The raid has caused hardship all around Postville, reports Tramonte. Many immigrant women who were released from arrest to care for their children while their husbands are serving jail sentences are wearing ankle monitors. They cannot work, so they have no money for rent or food.
Cleveland’s Temple Israel Ner Tamid, in cooperation with Gleaner’s Food Bank of Ohio and the New Jersey-based Jewish charity The Good People Fund, collected 24 pallets of food and humanitarian relief, enough to fill a 53-foot truck. Everything was sent to a food pantry in Postville.
The congressional delegation talked to business leaders and other employers in Postville.
“Everyone in town knew that Agriprocessors had labor problems and that they weren’t treating their workers well,” Tramonte says. “But they want the plant to succeed; it is the economic mainstay of Postville. They hate the fact that their town has been put on the map for this shameful story.”
skahn@cjn.org
At Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, a 26-year-old Guatemalan immigrant worked on the night cleaning crew without a uniform or a mask. Fumes from the chemicals have already compromised the condition of the young man’s lungs and irritated his eyes.
His story was one of many that Cleveland Heights resident Lynn Tramonte heard during her recent visit to Postville, Iowa. Tramonte is policy director of America’s Voice, an advocacy organization established after Congress failed to pass an immigration reform bill last year. She accompanied Congressmen Joe Baca (D-Calif.), Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) and Albio Sires (D-N.J.) of the House Hispanic Caucus on a fact-finding mission.
In May, federal immigration agents raided Agriprocessors and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants. In the ensuing “fast-tracked” legal process that was completed in only four days, nearly 300 Spanish-speaking defendants pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to document fraud and identity theft. The majority were sentenced to a five-month prison term, to be followed by deportation.
Immigration lawyers like Cleveland’s David Leopold and Lucas Guttentag, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, have denounced this fast-tracked process and the plea deal offered by the government as exploitative. The raid has also drawn public criticism for what some see as harsh punishment of the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers for flagrant labor abuses. So far, two Agriprocessors supervisors have been indicted, but the plant’s owners and top management have not been charged.
“ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) had it backward,” maintains Tramonte. “The raid interrupted an ongoing investigation by the Iowa state labor department. ICE ignored that, and they didn’t bring in any labor group.”
She recounts an emotional discussion she witnessed with a group of six “very nervous” immigrant women, where they described working a minimum of 12 hours a day with no overtime pay and no vacation time. “When they got their pay, they’d find mysterious deductions. But they needed the money, so they took it.”
Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations. In addition, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual har-assment at the plant, an issue also mentioned by the women Tramonte met.
“Talking to the immigrants was very powerful,” she says. “I felt personally ashamed of my government for treating these hard-working people as hardened criminals.”
As young as 14
It is illegal in Iowa for a company to employ workers 17 or younger in the slaughter and packing areas of a meat plant because of the dangers of the work. But more than 20 underage workers, some as young as 14, were swept up in the May raid. Last week, the Iowa Labor Commissioner sent dozens of alleged child-labor violations to the state’s attorney general for prosecution. The plant could face up to $1 million in fines stemming from the alleged hiring of 57 juveniles, ages 14 to 17. However, the company claims the government denied Agriprocessors’ requests to identify underage workers so they could be terminated.
A rally in Postville on July 27 drew 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy, rabbis and activists, protesting working conditions at Agriprocessors and calling for legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. It also drew about 150 people organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which opposes these proposals.
“Polling shows people are consistently in favor of a solution to our current illegal immigrant problem that includes a path to citizenship,” says Tramonte. “But the minority who are opposed are very vocal.”
Hardship all around
The raid has caused hardship all around Postville, reports Tramonte. Many immigrant women who were released from arrest to care for their children while their husbands are serving jail sentences are wearing ankle monitors. They cannot work, so they have no money for rent or food.
Cleveland’s Temple Israel Ner Tamid, in cooperation with Gleaner’s Food Bank of Ohio and the New Jersey-based Jewish charity The Good People Fund, collected 24 pallets of food and humanitarian relief, enough to fill a 53-foot truck. Everything was sent to a food pantry in Postville.
The congressional delegation talked to business leaders and other employers in Postville.
“Everyone in town knew that Agriprocessors had labor problems and that they weren’t treating their workers well,” Tramonte says. “But they want the plant to succeed; it is the economic mainstay of Postville. They hate the fact that their town has been put on the map for this shameful story.”
skahn@cjn.org
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