Thread: Guat. Mayans say E-verify is racist against indigenous.....

THE NEW IMMIGRANTS
Immigrants feel singled out for labor abuse
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Jack Spillane
By Jack Spillane
Standard-Times staff writer
June 30, 2008 6:00 AM

Editor's Note: Some of the names of immigrants in this story have been changed. Some participants declined to say whether they are in the United States legally.

On a sunny Wednesday afternoon last month, 15 to 20 Guatemalan Mayans walked off their stitching and packing jobs at Ahead Headgear in the New Bedford Business Park.
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The immigrants, all wearing white T-shirts to "peacefully" protest what they claimed is the plant's prejudice against Mayan workers, outlined a litany of complaints as they milled around the lawn outside Ahead's state-of-the-art factory building.

The immigrants were upset by the news that they would be laid off by the end of the week. The plant had told the workers their Social Security numbers did not match with the federal government's "E-verify" system. The immigrants, however, said their firing is just the latest example of Ahead using the legal status of Mayans to exploit them.

"The indigenous population are singled out," said a man named "Miguel."

Miguel, along with other Spanish-speaking workers, was being translated by the Rev. Marc Fallon, a New Bedford Catholic Social Services priest who ministers to Central American immigrants.

Ahead denied the allegations, saying in a statement that the walk-out was a result of the worker's not being able to document a legal immigration status.

"Ahead has received information which raises questions about the accuracy of information provided by some employees," the statement said. "Ahead is asking those employees to assist in resolving these questions to ensure that we are complying with our obligations under the law to only employ individuals who are authorized to work."

The Mayan immigrants, however, claim that other Ahead workers — some of the workers of Portuguese and non-Mayan Central American origin — also lack legal status, but have not been let go.

One supervisor has even told Mayan workers that he doesn't care if they change their names as long as they can prove their name matches a Social Security number, charged Adrian Ventura, president of Organization Maya K'iche, a local Mayan advocacy group.

"I can't understand why they fired the Mayans, and the Portuguese are still working without papers. They have benefits, health insurance, everything," he said.

The immigrants contended that Ahead is using the "E-Verify" system against them because they have complained about prejudice or working conditions.

E-Verify is a federal government program that employers can access, for free, on the Internet. It enables employers to check the immigration status of employees. President Bush recently issued an executive order requiring all federal contractors to use E-Verify.

The workers singled out one manager, who they claimed is particularly abusive and threatening about the E-Verify system.

"The supervisor is very racist. He discriminates what he asks of Latinos (versus) whites," said a woman named "Olivia," who said she has worked at Ahead for six years.

The factory, which specializes in stitching ball caps — later hires back the laid-off immigrants, but at entry level wages and without the time-off they have earned — the immigrants contended.

"We've seen a lot of this exploitation," Mr. Ventura said.

The Mayans are not the only immigrant group frustrated with working conditions in New Bedford shops.

---

Three weeks after the Ahead protest, non-Mayan Latino immigrants led an effort (joined by Portuguese immigrants, as well as American workers) to advocate for the creation of a union at Eagle Industries.

Eagle is the successor to the Michael Bianco military clothing and bag factory that was raided by agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in spring 2007.

Though the Eagle workers are seeking better wages, more affordable health care and flexible work schedules, like the Ahead workers, they are also concerned about what they call "discrimination" in the workplace, both in the evaluation of their work and in wage equity.

And like the Ahead workers, some Eagle workers claimed favoritism by Portuguese-American supervisors toward Portuguese immigrants over the more recently arrived Latinos. The bad supervisors, they said, are left over from when Bianco ran the plant. (Some Portuguese workers at Eagle, however, tell The Standard-Times the discrimination is based on friendship more than ethnicity.)

"The company treats people differently," said Maria Ayalo, a Salvadoran immigrant, through a translator. "If you work hard, they pressure you more, but the people who don't work, they really don't care."

Mrs. Ayalo, a 48-year-old immigrant who is in the United States with "temporary protective status," has worked inspecting pieces at Eagle for six months.

A spokesman for Eagle Industries called the charges of discrimination "outrageous" and "unfair."

"While we understand that the union has an agenda, Eagle has a mission — to equip our soldiers, grow our company, and keep contracts coming in the door for our workforce," wrote Alissa Southworth, a company spokeswoman, in a prepared statement.

Ms. Southworth denied there is any wage discrimination, saying it is against the law, and noted that Mayor Scott Lang, when the company came to New Bedford last November, said it had "preserved hundreds of jobs, offering fair wages and good benefits to legal residents."

---

"Miguel," one of the Ahead workers who had worked at the plant for five years prior to the walkout, said that Mayans are criticized for working too slow; denied the right to work the day shift (including mothers who sometimes need to be near their children); forced to work overtime on weekends; and laid off from their jobs just before they are about to earn vacation/sick time.

Non-Mayan Latino immigrants and American workers are not subjected to the same demands, said Miguel, as well as a half-dozen other Ahead workers.

A long history of American case law has held that workplace regulations governing everything from wages to vacations to safety apply to all workers — whether they are legal or illegal, immigrant or American.

"They can tell we're Mayan by our faces," said Mr. Ventura, of the distinctive Native American features of the indigenous Guatemalan group.

Another leader of Organization Maya K'iche said Mayan workers have helped make Ahead owner Kenneth Schwartz wealthy, but now that the government is cracking down on undocumented workers, he's cutting them off.

"Rich people make a lot of money by not paying good," said Anibal Lucas, the Mayan group's director. "This is how he got rich."

When Ahead was starting out, its managers called around the city to find workers like the Mayan immigrants; now that they're wealthy, they don't need us, Mr. Lucas charged.

---

Ahead, at the time of the May protest, had given the individuals whose Social Security numbers did not match the government's two more days to come with numbers that did match. The company had already given them weeks at that point.

But Mr. Lucas said that Ahead management, for most of the last five or six years, never demanded Social Security matches.

"In the beginning, they didn't ask for these documents, the owner (Kenneth Schwartz) knew what kind of people he hired," he said.

Ahead received press attention two years ago when some immigrant workers left their jobs without authorization after word spread, by cell phone, that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was in the process of raiding AML International, a city seafood processing plant.

An Ahead spokesman declined comment on the specific discrimination charges of the Mayan workers, but the statement said Ahead is committed to hiring people of different backgrounds.

"We pride ourselves in hiring a diverse work force, one which reflects the diversity that is New Bedford," the statement said.

Though the Mayan workers at Ahead, and both Latino and Portuguese workers at Eagle, believe they were singled out, complaints about discrimination and the exploitation of other Central American immigrants and their exposure to poor working conditions, have surfaced time and again over the last several decades.

Eight years ago, a group of community activists and union leaders charged that a Kyler's Seafood foreman had "sadistically" treated Mayan workers, including hitting them, swearing at them and drawing on their faces with felt markers. Kyler's investigated the charges but said the incidents were isolated and blown out of proportion. It also cited "language barriers" between the immigrants and the Portuguese-speaking supervisor.

Ten years ago, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Atlantic Coast Fisheries for one "willful" and 14 "serious" safety violations in the wake of a Guatemalan immigrant being crushed to death after getting caught in an industrial fish-meal processing machine.

Leaders of Mayan immigrants — individuals who have worked everywhere from seafood plants to tire recyclers to trash recycling companies that have contracts with the city of New Bedford — have sought meetings with the owners of city businesses. Among them: Ahead, New Bedford Waste Management, Mar-Lees Seafood and Garment Express.

The immigrants praised Mar-Lee's for being the only one that responded.

Four Mayan immigrants — all of them declining to say whether they are legally in the country — who worked in three separate fish houses and an apparel factory, said that at some work places, immigrant laborers are constantly urged to work faster, exposed to sometimes dangerous working conditions, and spoken to in foul language and made to feel humiliated.

Their claims echoed the complaints of six former Central American workers at the former Michael Bianco factory. Those workers, in a class-action suit filed last year, claimed they routinely worked 16-hour days, and as much as 80 hours a week. They claimed they were docked in 15-minute breaks for everything from waiting in line to punch in, to their bathroom breaks.

The workers, like the protesters, contended that Portuguese immigrants are treated better by supervisors who are mostly of Portuguese origin. The Americans are given the better jobs, higher wages, paid on the books so they can purchase health insurance, and even allowed to take longer breaks and amenities like listening to Portuguese music, they charged.

"They (the employers) know that some people don't have documentation and they don't have any rights," Mr. Ventura said.

----

Tough conditions in New Bedford's industrial workplace, particularly on the waterfront, are not unknown.

According to a 2006 study of immigrant workers in the New Bedford fish processing plants by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, most plants have done little to improve working conditions, including taking advantage of available workforce training funds.

The study, "The Flexibility of Fresh Groundfish and Herring Processing in New England," states that the government training funds could increase productivity and improve conditions.

It concludes that in a few cases, immigrant workers have banded together with labor, activist or church groups to win "back wages," but said that's the exception. Most immigrant workers believe it would be difficult to find a job outside of seafood processing in the current political climate, the study said.

"Workers usually withstand poor treatment or move on to another workplace," the study says. "The current climate that has called attention to undocumented workers has deepened the insecurity and fear on the waterfront among workers."

Out of seven seafood companies contacted by the newspaper — AML International, Pier Fish Co., Mar-Lees, Eastern Fisheres, Marder Trawling, Kyler's and Carlos Seafood — Mar-Lees and Carlos' were the only ones that would be quoted and address safety and workplace issues in detail. Most didn't return phone calls at all.

Kimberly Lannigan, the CEO for Mar-Lees, said food processing companies are required by the government to follow many safety and workplace procedures. They are monitored by federal agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration to the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Ms. Lannigan and her managers have met with Organization Maya K'iche regarding workplace issues.

"We're very cognizant of employees' rights, and abide by overtime and labor laws," she said.

----

One immigrant worker who worked at a fish house told the newspaper he injured his fingers when a seafood plant supervisor deliberately pushed a bin into him. Another immigrant, who worked at a clothing factory, said she was made to push a 300-pound bin when she was pregnant.

Women whose children are sick are sometimes fired if they stay home, Mr. Ventura contended.

People have gotten sick from the chemicals used at both the fish plant and in the apparel factories, Mr. Ventura said, and immigrants are not given enough safety instruction about equipment, or things like gloves or safety glasses.

"The only thing they tell us is 'Do this, do that!'"

A particular objection of some immigrants is being forbidden to speak K'iche, a Mayan dialect, even though Portuguese and Spanish are often spoken in the workplace.

"They don't allow us to speak our own native tongue, K'iche," Mr. Ventura said. "They say, 'Shut up. Don't speak like that. This is America, not Guatemala.'"

Three fish house workers at different plants said that 15-minute breaks have been cut back to 10, and that workers are constantly urged to work faster than they reasonably can. One worker said he was threatened with being fired because he refused overtime in order to go to his English class.

"They depend on us being illegal so they can pay us less and have us work in worse conditions," Mr. Ventura said.

Ms. Lannigan, however, said her plant's employees are able to go to their supervisors if they feel intimidated. She said that sometimes misunderstandings arise about what a boss means because of language and cultural divides.

"A lot of employees don't speak English, so they may misinterpret things," she said.

Mr. Ventura, however, said immigrants believe their jobs depend on their willingness to be treated like "slaves."

"If you push people too much, you get fired."

Everybody is afraid that the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency will stage another New Bedford raid, he said.

After the national headlines that resulted from the raid at the Bianco factory in the South End, many workers were fired if their papers were not "good enough," Mr. Ventura said. But the immigrants have since been rehired after employers found that Americans wouldn't do the work, he said.

"The conditions are getting worse," he said. "Everybody is nervous."

But immigrants are learning that in America, even immigrants are covered by labor laws.

"This will let them know that the Mayans are learning about our rights," he said. "We are in a free country and a democratic country."

Every one of these IA workers lied to get their job. So tell me again why anyone would believe ONE word coming out of their mouths?

Jack Spillane: A few reflections on the immigrant project

July 07, 2008 6:00 AM

The Standard-Times' effort to explore the lives of the many Central American immigrants who've come to New Bedford the last two decades, and the impact of their migration on both themselves and the city, is now complete.

Though it often seemed to those involved with months and months of reporting on the project to be an exhaustive effort, albeit one mostly completed part-time on a small staff, in reality, it is an incomplete examination.
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Part of that is because of the limitations of time, a good part of it is because of the limitations of this reporter's skills and abilities, and part of it is just the difficulty of capturing reality in a series of newspaper articles.

There's much, much more that can be said and written — both pro and con — about the movement of such a large group of new people to New Bedford. And there's much, much more that can be examined about how a significant Latino presence affects the city today, and how that presence will develop (or not develop) further in the decades to come.

Those of us who work at this newspaper — the editors, project participants and reporting staff as a whole — however, were anxious to take a first step to begin what we thought was an important conversation.

It's a conversation about who we are as a city in New Bedford, and where we go from here.

There are all kinds of views about that, of course, most of them with more than a small amount of legitimacy.

In fact, the more reporting one does on this (or any issue), the more one becomes convinced that one's personal perspective — to a very great extent — depends on one's particular background or station in life.

Anyway, here's just a glance at some of the perspectives we encountered during the making of this immigration project and hopefully some insight into their value.

There were the views of the church leaders — who when it wasn't very popular in some city circles — were the first group to unabashedly move to take care of the immigrants when they needed help.

And there were the views of the talk radio hosts and callers — who also, when it wasn't very popular in some city circles — spoke up for the impact of a flood of new immigrants on the wages and jobs prospects of blue-collar American workers. The radio hosts also pointed out some of the deleterious effects of the immigrants on taxes and social policies.

Meanwhile, professional advocates for the immigrants — the nonprofit workers, the pro-bono lawyers — pointed out the unfair reality of undocumented immigrants having to pay into social security they can never benefit from. Or the unfairness of immigrants being paid below cost-of-living wages, or deprived of benefits like worker's compensation or unemployment benefits, by less-than-scrupulous employers.

On the other hand, there were the views of some of the employers of immigrants — some of them in New Bedford's most important industry (fishing) — that if they were required to return to union-scale wages and benefits, the fishing industry itself would cease to be viable in this city.

Finally, there were the views of the immigrants themselves, people fearful of being unceremoniously sent back home because of an infraction that for most of the past two decades was treated like an unnoteworthy civil matter.

And there were the views of those same immigrants that their relentless and extreme poverty, their desperation to make their lives bearable (or to help their family), is more important than any legal line in the desert separating one country from another. There were the views of those immigrants that they live in countries where the international economic system, and corruption and violence, make it impossible to live with any shred of human dignity.

Issues of economic policy, the best way to encourage business and the best way to build fairness into the economic system are all complex matters.

They're integrally connected to the changing face of New Bedford, and the tensions that have grown up in the city as the interests of immigrants and Americans have bumped up against each other.

Those tensions won't be easily solved.

But they won't be solved at all without beginning a conversation like the one we hope The Standard-Times has begun.

Contact Jack Spillane

at jspillane@s-t.com

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbc ... /807070353

The brazenness and sense of entitlement that these "immigrants" (likely illegals) have is amazing. News flash to them: if you're uncomfortable here, go home.

Originally Posted by miguelina

Every one of these IA workers lied to get their job. So tell me again why anyone would believe ONE word coming out of their mouths?

They do spin some wonderous tales.

I am surprised at the boldness with which IA's are complaining,even demostrating at their former jobs. They don't seem to fear ICE.

Time for a BIG TIME New Bedford ICE raid.

I believe what they're saying. We all know how racist some of these groups can be themselves against people from a different region or country than they are, and how much they band together against the "others" whether they are also of Latino heritage or not. It's a sick, racist cycle. The Portuguese against the Mayans against the Cubans against the Mexicans against the Guatemalans against etc, etc, crossing all over the place against each other.

I think that's part of the reason the Latinos have been unsuccessful in getting pro-illegal amnesty laws passed, is because there is sooo much division amongst each other. AMERICANS band together REGARDLESS of race, religion, political stance, etc!! THAT'S where we can ALWAYS win over the Pro-Illegals!!!!

Also, this article REALLY highlights to me how much the employers of the illegals get away with EVERYTHING! We can't solve this illegal problem until we start cracking down on these slave labor factories and putting the head honchos in JAIL!! We can deport all the illegals we want to, but these slimeball slave businesses will keep hiring, abusing, and exploiting every illegal we can, UNTIL the government scares them into complying by REALLY enforcing the law against them (with jail time more than fines, since fines mean nothing to these jerks).

TexasGal

TexasGal

You are right about the slimball slave businesses and the need for our government to go after them Big Time.

My hope is the deported IA's will take what they learned from their time in the US and apply it in their home countries because until there is a massive uprising in our southern neighbors countries nothing will change and they will think they have a right to bring their countries problems to the USA !!!

Hate to be cold but alot of the things they complain about are things citizens go through all the time. Countless women have lost jobs because of their children. Many have orders barked at them with no training, companies many times lay you off or fire you and then hire you back at base pay......on down the line. Circuit City just did that and other places are known for doing it. I've experienced and see with my own eyes employers degrade people and humiliate them knowing full well they are in a situation where they can't afford to walk out. That is most likely why many of these companies NEED illegals.....because they're a crappy business to begin with. They get a reputation in an area and until "under new management" or something happens......people stay away. Heck I've seen people bust butt and get nowhere while some twinkie flashes a smile and gets promoted for nothing. This is nothing new. Is it right? No. But it happens and even with all the rules and laws on the books it still happens. More than people realize. Fight it and you're lucky you work anywhere again. Strike and there's a ton more out there waiting for your position. With more disposable workers, the more this will happen. You become a disgruntled employee even if you have valid reasons and can prove it.

So much that people think are their RIGHTS are nothing more than common company policies. Which they can change anytime they feel like it. So many of the other laws are only for BIG companies and don't apply to the average worker. Once again.....they must have heard some fantastic stories about here, but it's not true.

I don't like this mentality of "groups" because I can see this get very ugly in the future and make any job a nightmare.

"This will let them know that the Mayans are learning about our rights," he said. "We are in a free country and a democratic country."

Ya, but it's not your country and you aren't here legally.