Sunday, July 27, 2008

EPITOME OF EVIL: Agriprocessors Continues to Pursue Latino Workers (Legal or illegal) Rather than Improve Working Conditions and Pay Livable Wages

Agriprocessors the most egregious corporation in US History is continuing to seek Latino Workers, legal or illegal, rather than improve their deplorable, unsafe working conditions or pay livable wages to Local Workers. The Rubashkins have a history rife with crime. From abusing workers, violating Child Labor Laws, illegally working children 11 hours a day with no overtime pay to providing illegal workers False Green Cards, this Company and all like them must be stopped and the owners responsible imprisoned. They have destroyed a nice town, exploited countless workers and stood as a model of unpunished corruption for others to follow. When will the Government and Law Enforcement finally put these heinous employers behind bars? Or do those GOP donations really afford them the opportunity to avoid prosecution for their crimes?
Ryan Regenold, a spokesman for Des Moines-based Jacobson Companies, said his staffing company was relying on two Texas agencies, one in Amarillo and another in McAllen, for recruiting in that state. “I represent Jacobson Staffing, and we were brought here on June 2 to basically bring in an entire new community — at least that’s how it seems,” Regenold said. “There are two outside-sourced agencies that Agri is using that were bringing the people from Texas. As I’m sure most have already heard, they are coming in from Amarillo and McAllen (TX-MX border town). To shore up that, we are screening those people a little bit better, we will be starting to have them drug-screened and background-checked prior to their coming to Postville. The wave of people that you might have seen in the past, those causing the police chief to do a little bit of extra paperwork on his weekends, hopefully will begin to stop.”...One of the firms being utilized by Jacobson is Bravo Labor Agency in McAllen, Texas. Although the company’s Web site has been taken off-line, a May 30 cached version of the page indicates that the firm began in 1987. One of the specialties highlighted by the firm is its ability to “lower overhead, with inexpensive labor from South Texas and Mexico.” ...
The “bad apples” aren’t the first to come to Postville for work at Agriprocessors only to seek exit shortly after their arrival. Labor Ready, a multinational staffing firm with a branch in Waterloo, Iowa cited health and safety concerns as the reason it pulled roughly 150 workers out of the Agriprocessors plant 10 days after they started employment there. Another group of workers from the company’s Nebraska plant opted to return west, claiming the working conditions in Postville to be far inferior to their original location.
---------------------------
Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins make me angry! Why is it that rather than improve their working conditions and pay livable wages, they seek Latino workers in Texas, legal or illegal? The answers are clear. 1. GREED, 2. they have no regard for the workers they deem inferior and 3. they know their GOP Cronies will allow their crimes to go unpunished. These employers are the epitome of EVIL!

31 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where in the article did it say that Ariprocessors was continuing to pursue illegal aliens or latinos in particular since the raid, dee?

Dee said...

Read the article Pat. Actually I found this on an ANTI site. It is quite clear: Agriprocessors uses a staffing company called Jacobson Staffing. Jacobsen hired Bravo Labor Co. in McAllen TX (border town) to hire for Agriprocessors Postville plant. One of Bravo´s specialties is its ability to “lower overhead, with inexpensive labor from South Texas and Mexico.”

Anonymous said...

Agriprocessors should be put out of business. Hopefully with their inability to obtain workers they will have to shut down. If not, then they will have to let the unions come in and we all know that would not be good for Agriprocessor's, but it would be damned good for American Workers.

Anonymous said...

actually most of the anti web sites i ready say that they want to see Agriprocessors executives put in jail.

Not a lot of difference between your view, Dee, and theirs

Obviously the antis don't have much political power and neither do you, Dee.

The powers that be in this country want millions of mexicans to move to the usa each year. They want the mexicans to stay frightened and docile in order to push down the wages of america's working class.

that's not your platform and that's not the platform of the antis, but that is what we will keep getting

Anonymous said...

Again, where did it say that they were pursuing Latinos either legal or illegal?

Dee said...

Anonymous, I agree with every word you said.

Dee said...

Pat, Why do you think they are recruiting in Texas vs Iowa or Chicago or St Loui or KC which are much closer. They chose Texas, especially McAllen, a border town that specializes in “lower overhead, with inexpensive labor from South Texas and Mexico.”

Dee said...

Liquid, I am glad we agree. I was reading about the hearings and the abuse of the children and the workers they maimed in the unsafe equipment. Then I read this article about their recruiting efforts. They wont fix anything in the plant. I am so mad. Outraged!

Dee said...

I think they should raise the wages, follow safety standards, and hire legal workers, with a union. If they wanted to hire Guest Workers in this environment that would be ok too as long a they followed the Visa process.

The sad thing is, plants like this one will probably continue, unpunished.

Anonymous said...

Again, you are assuming. There are other ethnicities that live in Texas besides Latinos. The Jacobson Companies and their affiliates also stated in the article that they are screening potential hires much better now with drug testing and background checks. That would mean that they aren't pursuing illegal aliens!

Anonymous said...

Here is something else that you conveniently left out from the link to the Iowa newspaper.

"All new hires coming through Jacobson are being checked through the E-Verify system, an online system operated jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration (SSA), to ensure their legal status, Regenold said."

Now you tell me with them using the e-verify system that they are PURSUING ILLEGAL ALIENS! LOL!

Dee said...

Pat, And you are telling me with Agriprocessors history you believe what their PR and HR team are trying to sell us?

Anonymous said...

Those outside companies that they hired are not their own HR people. They are separate companies from Agri-Processors. There you go with your conspiracy theories again.

Anonymous said...

In reference to Patriot's comment that there are other ethnicities beside Latinos that live in Texas. Jacobson Staffing hired Bravo Labor Company in McAllen Texas. Here is the breakdown from ePodunk.com for McAllen:

· Mexican - 66%
· Other Hispanic or Latino - 13%
· German - 4%
· English - 3%
· Irish - 2%
· Filipino - 1%
· Italian - 1%
· French (except Basque) - 1%
· Black or African American - 1%
· Dutch - 1%
· Swedish - 1%

Anonymous said...

Another one who doesn't know the difference between nationality and race/culture. We are all Americans by nationality, not Mexican, not English, not German, etc.

Dee said...

Pat, It would help if you actually read what he said. He said "ethnicity". And the numbers are 79% Latino. What is so hard to understand. I think its simple. Denial, your middle name is Pat.

Dee said...

Da Tiger, THANK YOU for the stats!!!

Anonymous said...

Most of the catagories that he listed were not ethniciticies they were nationalities. Are you yet another one who doesn't know the difference between the two?

I am denial over what? I realize that Latinos are the majority in Texas but that doesn't mean that there aren't other ethnic groups living there or that they aren't being pursued for work.

You implied in the title of this topic that Agri-Processors was only pursuing Latinos for work and your implication that they didn't care if they were illegal or not, I already proved wrong by them using e-verify.

Dee said...

Pat, I find it unbelievable you are believing their PR machine. Their years long history of denying they employed illegal immigrants is well known. Additionally Bravo Labors website said: “lower overhead, with inexpensive labor from South Texas and Mexico."
No use responding to this Pat. You are going to believe what you believe anyway.

Anonymous said...

Unlike you, I don't pass judgement on others until the facts are proven. You always jump to conclusions and make accusations that fit with your agenda.

Anonymous said...

It would be pretty damned dumb for Agri-processors to hire a company to recruit illegal workers again after what has already happened. Do you really think they want that scandal again? Do you not think that Agri-Processors will be under close scrutiny now in view of what happened two short months ago? How dumb do you think that company and the Feds are?

Anonymous said...

Dee, I encourage you to follow the paper trail of some of these Agriprocessors. Did you know that Tyson Foods was a donor for MALDEF back in 2003? I don't know if that is still the case, but I'm kind of troubled by that. Since you have done some research on this... I thought that maybe you could do additional digging.

Dee said...

Adriana, I will ask about this with some news contacts I have. I will post the findings when I receive them.

Anonymous said...

Just for you dee. Another case where the employer was punished for hiring illegal aliens.

http://www0.numbersusa.com/content/news/may-5-2008/virginia-firm-convicted-hiring-illegal-a.html

Virginia Firm Convicted of Hiring Illegal Aliens
Updated Tuesday, May 6, 2008, 4:58 PM

The Peabody Corporation of Newport News, Va., along with the company's president and vice president, was convicted of hiring at least 126 illegal aliens between 2003 and 2007. Peabody operates a fishing fleet out of Newport News and used illegal aliens on 322 trips.

Vice President Yvonne Peabody was sentenced to three months in prison and fined $50,000. Her father, President William Peabody, was sentenced to five months of home confinement and fined $100,000. The company must pay $6.75 million -- a total that includes $6.25 million in profits from hiring illegal aliens and $500,000 in fines.

Both the U.S. Attorney and the lawyers for the defense requested that Miss Peabody and Mr. Peabody be sentenced to no time in prison, but Judge Raymond Jackson called the Peabodys' actions "egregious" and determined that Miss Peabodys' actions merited an active jail sentence -- an action that Kenneth Bell, lawyer for the Peabodys, called unprecedented for first-time misdemeanor charges.

Dee said...

Good for Judge Jackson. I certainly hope his ruling stands and the guilty are in prison today. The US Attorney did not want prison time. How interesting. The Honorable Judge should be commended. This is the 1st substantial case where the owner is sentenced to prison. Good!!


"Both the U.S. Attorney and the lawyers for the defense requested that Miss Peabody and Mr. Peabody be sentenced to no time in prison, but Judge Raymond Jackson called the Peabodys' actions "egregious" and determined that Miss Peabodys' actions merited an active jail sentence"

Dee said...

Adriana, I found some affiliations between Tyson and Maldef. Maldef has many corporate sponsors. They have been viewed a Humanitarian organization, supporter of Civil and Human rights for the Latino community for some time. Maldef and LULAC have shared conferences and are very active in voter registration. I did see some documents in which Tyson donated food for needy families and assisting in food supplies for their conferences. I did not see anything negative in these type of partnerships. I did not see any affiliations for Agriprocessors. From a hiring aspect, I am told by my contacts Agriprocessors is purely interested in low cost workers and larger profits.

Anonymous said...

No dee. It isn't the first case where the "guilty" was sentenced to prison for hiring illegal aliens.

Dee said...

Pat, READ what I said. I said this was the 1st SUBSTANTIAL Case where the guilty exploiting employer was given Prison Time. And it took an Honest African American Judge who DID NOT accept the recommendations of a US Attorney to do it!! Yeahhh!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I have posted other "substantial" cases in here but you are short on memory I guess.

Anonymous said...

I tried really hard to see the numbers USA web site, but it was cut off. So, I Googled the info and got the following clips ( A little bit more for the soap opera.).

2/23/08 http://hamptonroads.com/node/455146
2/28/08 http://hamptonroads.com/node/455811
5/1/08 http://hamptonroads.com/node/463124
6/2/08 http://hamptonroads.com/node/467558

Dee said...

Thank you Da Tiger. That was quite a soap opera.

Page Hits