Thread: 160 Palauns Left in Financial Difficulty by US Plant Closure

160 Palauns left in financial difficulty after closure of US meat plant

Updated Mon Dec 22, 2008 5:18pm AEDT

A group of Palauns in the United States are facing huge financial difficulties after losing their jobs at a kosher meat processing plant.

Agriprocessors Limited in the midwestern state of Iowa shut last month, leaving several hundred people unemployed and unpaid. About 160 of those were Palauans, who are now owed several weeks wages and up to three months rent.

Presenter: Helene Hofman
Speakers: Reverand Carol Kress from the First United Methodist Church in Decorah, Iowa; Palau's State Minister Temmy Shmull

Agriprocessors Limited in the small town of Postville, Iowa, was the largest kosher meat producer in the United States.

However, last May the company was the centre of the country's largest ever workplace immigration raid.

389 illegal immigrants were arrested. Most were Guatemalan, and 20 were under-age, some as young as 13..

The company never fully recovered from the scandal and despite attempts to recruit a replacement workforce legally from Palau, it was forced to shut it's doors in November, leaving 160 Palauns and hundreds of other workers unpaid.

Unable to pay their rent or bills, many turned to church leaders for help.

Reverand Carol Kress from the First United Methodist Church in the nearby city of Decorah says the Palauns were left in a particularly vulnerable position because they were relying on Agriprocessors to pay their rent:

KRESS: When the Palauns came to Postville they were promised that their rent would be free for three months. The rent was deducted from their pay and the company was then to reimburse the landlord and also to reimburse the utility bills. However, the company did not do any of those things and on November 8th when many of the Palauns missed their pay checks, their landlords also missed their rent payments and the utility companies missed their payments and many of the Palauns were faced with being on the street and having their utilites shut off.

Luckily the community rallied together to help.

Some landlords agreed to leave the apartments open, and many of the Palauns doubled up on accomodation.

However, about 40 others did find themselves homeless. The community organised for them to sleep on matresses in the skating rink in until a temporary shelter was set up in a church.

They spent several weeks there, depending on donations for food and living expenses.

Since then about a dozen of those workers have decided to return to Palau, while others have left to stay with family members and friends in other parts of the United States.

The majority of workers have found other jobs, but are still owed hundreds of dollars in wages and rent by Agriprocessors Limited.

With plant's CEO facing criminal charges and hefty fines for hiring illegal workers, it's unknown when or if the workers will be paid.

A bankruptcy trustee re-opened the plant earlier this month and rehired 200 workers to try to recoup some funds, but Reverand Cress says it's likely to provide little more than temporary relief.

KRESS: Now it is in receivership and there a person running the plant, but basically they're cleaning up, processing the remaining chickens in teh hope of selling the plant in the near future.

HOFMAN: And how likely are the employees to get back the money they're owed?

KRESS: I don't know. I don't think they will . . I think the odds are low that they'll get back the money that they're owed and if Agriprocessors really does go through bankruptcy court it will be a very long time before they see any money and it will probably be a very small percentage to the dollar, like 50 cents to the dollar, that they will actually receive.

As Pacific Beat reported in October, 300 more Palauns had been invited to take up jobs at the Agriprocessors plant.

They were to be paid 10 US dollars an hour - almost three dollars more than the state's minimum wage and four times Palau's minimum wage.

However, the president at the time - Tommy Remengaseau - had previously urged Palauns not to take jobs at the plant because of it's history of exploiting workers.

The State Minister Temmy Shmull was sent to the plant on a fact finding mission and concluded that the Palauns working there were well treated.

He says there was no way they could have foreseen the current situation:

SHMULL: This is a situation where a group of Palauns went to work for a particular company. These are adults and can make their own decisions. We only try to help if they're abused in terms of labour laws and unfair treatment.

HOFMAN: How have you helped the group that are there now?

KRESS: we visited the plant, talked to the people and unfortunately when we were there the palauns were happy. we able to talk to owners and management at the plant and everything looked good. Unforuntaely it didn't work out. I haven't gone back there but our ambassador has been instructed to monitor the situation adn report back on any developments.

http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/progra ... 453207.htm

Oh no! Not another installment of "As Postville Turns"

Enough is enough already.....this story wore itself out a long time ago and nobody CARES!!!

What these people are experiencing is nothing different than what millions of Americans have suffered through, not just now but in the past as well with far more of it coming in the future.

It's an unfortunate fact of life that plants and businesses close down, people are forced out of work, all suffering financial hardship as a result and many suffering to the extreme of having utilities cut, inability to pay for housing, etc.

What in the hell makes it any different or worse when it happens to foreign workers? Nothing, that's what.

Time for the pity party to stop...........

What in the hell makes it any different or worse when it happens to foreign workers? Nothing, that's what.

What conditions did they leave? Probably the same thing.

Notice they forgot to mention the meth lab? Hummm?

Now they know how millions of Americans feel when plants that used to employ us close!! They can always go home. We are home!

After the initial ICE raid, Agriprocessors went out of their way to find people from a foreign country that would accept cheap wages in exchange for coming to America. They just wanted to "stick it" to ICE because their unending source of cheap illegal alien labor was rounded up, jailed, and processed for deportation. So they replaced them with Palauns. Every employer at Agriprocessors should rot in prison for life.

Welcome to our Banana Republic

Originally Posted by PatrioticMe

Now they know how millions of Americans feel when plants that used to employ us close!! They can always go home. We are home!

Good One!!!

When illegals take all a towns jobs is also like a plant closing to the people NOT hired, like Americans.

Originally Posted by butterbean

After the initial ICE raid, Agriprocessors went out of their way to find people from a foreign country that would accept cheap wages in exchange for coming to America. They just wanted to "stick it" to ICE because their unending source of cheap illegal alien labor was rounded up, jailed, and processed for deportation. So they replaced them with Palauns. Every employer at Agriprocessors should rot in prison for life.

Now that's FUNNY. LOL
That's for that "need to know" info.

The biggest question I have is, why would ANYONE from Palau want to come here? Have you guys seen how beautiful Palau is? I would give my right testicle to live in Palau, yet they come here for a job? Are things really that bad there? They used to live off the land. Money was not heard of or needed. Probably yet another victim of Christian Missionaries telling them that they are sinners and introduced to them the concept of money and greed, and a generation later they are unable to fend for themselves.

How about the 10+ million Americans out of work facing financial difficulties. This is what we must focus on.