Thread: California food industry fears impact of Bush's worker ID or

California food industry fears impact of Bush's worker ID order
By Susan Ferriss - sferriss@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Saturday, July 26, 2008

A new White House order that federal contractors verify employees' identity documents has some businesses sweating over the potential impact – especially California's huge food industry.

President Bush has ordered businesses and institutions with federal contracts – from janitorial companies to the state of California – to use E-Verify, a database that checks if workers' names, Social Security numbers or other ID match.

Under the Bush order, employers would have to fire workers whose identity doesn't square with Social Security Administration records. The computer system can't flag ID information that's been stolen, but it can detect false Social Security numbers used by illegal immigrants.

"We're concerned. It's still very much open how far back in the supply chain E-Verify would have to be used," said Rich Hudgins, president of the California Canning Peach Association.

His group's 500 members produce 80 percent of the nation's canned peaches, which are supplied to processors that sell most of them for federally subsidized school lunches.

An estimated 50 percent to 70 percent of farmworkers are suspected of being undocumented, particularly in fruit and vegetable production.

Groups like the peach farmers have until Aug. 11 to submit comments to the federal government about Bush's order and to ask questions. The rule won't go into effect until later this year, after the comments have been reviewed.

Government officials suggest the scope of the order may be more limited than businesses imagine. But in the meantime, industry representatives complain, it's unclear which employees they'll have to check.

Hudgins has asked the government to extend the public comment period 90 days. He said his members are harvesting and need time to develop questions.

If food companies feel they won't be able to comply with the order without firing workers and damaging their businesses, Hudgins said, "they might just take a pass on school lunch bids."

The U.S. food industry acknowledges that illegal immigrants are in their work force. Workers with fake documents began filling farm jobs as immigrants who had received amnesty in 1986 moved out, representatives say. The law hasn't required employers to check documents' authenticity.

Today, the food industry and other businesses with large immigrant work forces want to combine E-Verify with a program to allow undocumented workers to earn legal status.


Order applies to state, UC

California is usually first or second in the nation for federal contract dollars it receives.

Last year more than $44.5 billion in contracts flowed into the state for goods and services ranging from weapons and research to tree trimming and construction. Federally contracted food is sold to various federal agencies, including the the military and its commissaries.

Pacific Coast Producers, with fruit and vegetable processing plants in Lodi, Woodland and Oroville, sold almost $10 million worth of food to the Department of Agriculture last year.

Dick Ehrler, the company's human resources president, said he has been advised not to use E-Verify because of Social Security database errors, but he doesn't anticipate a "significant problem" when he starts using it.

"We've complied with all the legal requirements for hiring," he said.

The University of California and state government will also have to use E-Verify.

UC was awarded close to $2.2 billion in federal contracts in 2007, most of it for research and services for the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, NASA and the Army. The California state government was awarded almost $20 million last year for food, legal and information services and operation of federal facilities for the Army and the Social Security Administration, among others.


Who would be checked

Only about 1 percent of U.S. businesses voluntarily use E-Verify. Congress made it available in 1996, but has limited it to new hires – not workers already on payrolls


The new Bush rule would require employees hired after 1986 who work directly on a federal contract be checked as well as all new hires once the database is in use.

Existing employees not connected to a contract would not have to be checked, according to Michael Collins, communications official with the federal General Services Administration.

For example, if scientists at UC laboratories received a federal contract "to develop a new widget, they would have to be E-Verified," Collins said. "But employees not working on this contract – like the cafeteria staff at UC Berkeley or the groundskeepers at UC Santa Cruz – would not."

Businesses with employees performing services on federal land or installations, such as maintenance or construction, will have to use E-Verify to check employees assigned to the contract.

Pride Industries, based in Sacramento, was awarded $51 million in 2007 for housekeeping, janitorial and food service work on military bases.

Tina Oliveira, Pride's human resources vice president, said Pride is not worried that its employees will prove ineligible to work. But she said she understands others' concerns.

"These (fake) documents are really good these days," she said. "I think the industries that have been accepting these documents are going to have an impact."


Discrepancies in records

Immigration control groups say E-Verify is a proven tool to help employers avoid hiring illegal immigrants.

Latino and other civil rights groups oppose expansion of E-Verify because of an estimated 17 million discrepancies that exist between names and numbers in Social Security Administration records – many the result of clerical errors. Because of those discrepancies, citizens and legal immigrants have been flagged and fired.

Although Bush's order was announced as a crackdown on undocumented workers, federal officials are suggesting many at the bottom of the food-production chain may not be affected.

Collins, the GSA spokesman, said subcontractors that supply a federal contractor with products that are also sold to commercial suppliers – such as fruits and vegetables – would not have to use the database.

"However," Collins said, "answers to questions about subcontractors will be addressed by the acquisitions councils responsible for drafting the rules."

It's that "however" that has the food industry on edge.

Del Monte, a food giant whose workers process fruit, vegetables and meat, held a federal contract in 2007 to sell more than $126 million in food to federal agencies, including military commissaries and federal food programs.

The San Francisco-based corporation declined to comment on the Bush rule, referring questions to Hudgins, whose members supply Del Monte with peaches.

Hudgins said he's read the order, and he's puzzled.

Craig Regelbrugge, with the National Council of Agricultural Employers, said it's clear to him that meatpackers and food processors with contracts are going to be forced to use E-Verify.

But what's unclear, Regelbrugge said, is how Bush's order will affect farm cooperatives. Sometimes a cooperative – which might be co-owned by farmers – holds the federal contract. If farmers are owners of the cooperative, they might have to check their workers, Regelbrugge said.

"If this thing (Bush's order) goes through as published, you're going to see a lot of people analyzing these structural relationships and how to change them," Regelbrugge said.

California Dairies Inc., a Central Valley-based cooperative, does $3.5 billion in sales worldwide a year, with more than $10 million in 2007 to the federal government. More than 600 dairymen are co-owners.

President Richard Cotta said the cooperative's 700 processing plant workers are longtime workers, and he doesn't anticipate a problem with E-Verify.

If Bush's rule were to apply to all dairymen – whose farms are run independently – "that would be a completely different story," Cotta said.

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1110891-p2.html

A new White House order that federal contractors verify employees' identity documents has some businesses sweating over the potential impact – especially California's huge food industry.

President Bush has ordered businesses and institutions with federal contracts – from janitorial companies to the state of California – to use E-Verify, a database that checks if workers' names, Social Security numbers or other ID match.

In other words, we have a huge number of illegal invaders working in this industry and if we were directed to follow the law, we would risk losing a tremendous number of our work force within this industry, thereby having a negative impact on the bottom line of those companies who refuse to follow the law.

Are you reading this ICE!!!

[quote]Dick Ehrler, to use E-Verify because of Social Security database errors[the company's human resources president, said he has been advised not/quote]

Yeah, and exactly who has been doing the advising? Have you been listening to your local U.S. Chamber of Commerce, La Raza, LULAC, MALDEF, SPLC, or the ACLU? My advice to you, consider the source!

Pacific Coast Producers, with fruit and vegetable processing plants in Lodi, Woodland and Oroville, sold almost $10 million worth of food to the Department of Agriculture last year.

Dick Ehrler, the company's human resources president, said he has been advised not to use E-Verify because of Social Security database errors, but he doesn't anticipate a "significant problem" when he starts using it.

"We've complied with all the legal requirements for hiring," he said.

The University of California and state government will also have to use E-Verify.

So he's going to use it. Before he got away with it but now he'll use it and keep his business open. That's the way it is. IF they want their business to continue to take care of their own families, they WILL DO WHAT THEY HAVE NEED TO DO TO SURVIVE. PERIOD.

What's wrong with the H-2A visas Mr. Ehrler.

Latino and other civil rights groups oppose expansion of E-Verify because of an estimated 17 million discrepancies that exist between names and numbers in Social Security Administration records – many the result of clerical errors. Because of those discrepancies, citizens and legal immigrants have been flagged and fired.

Using someone else's Social Security number is NOT a DISCREPANCY! It is against the law. Why do Latino and "other" civil rights groups oppose E-Verify? BECAUSE IT WORKS.

All emloyers ask for a Social Securiy number when an employee gets hired. The only reason why anyone would not oblige is because they have something to hide.

How could there be 17 million discrepancies? Isnt that just around the number of illegal immigrants that some groups claim are in the country?

Originally Posted by butterbean

Latino and other civil rights groups oppose expansion of E-Verify because of an estimated 17 million discrepancies that exist between names and numbers in Social Security Administration records – many the result of clerical errors. Because of those discrepancies, citizens and legal immigrants have been flagged and fired.

Using someone else's Social Security number is NOT a DISCREPANCY! It is against the law. Why do Latino and "other" civil rights groups oppose E-Verify? BECAUSE IT WORKS.

All emloyers ask for a Social Securiy number when an employee gets hired. The only reason why anyone would not oblige is because they have something to hide.

How could there be 17 million discrepancies? Isnt that just around the number of illegal immigrants that some groups claim are in the country?

LOL good point BB.

Added to Homepage:
http://www.alipac.us/article-3404--0-0.html

NoBueno wrote:

In other words, we have a huge number of illegal invaders working in this industry and if we were directed to follow the law, we would risk losing a tremendous number of our work force within this industry, thereby having a negative impact on the bottom line of those companies who refuse to follow the law.

BINGO!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by redbadger

NoBueno wrote:

In other words, we have a huge number of illegal invaders working in this industry and if we were directed to follow the law, we would risk losing a tremendous number of our work force within this industry, thereby having a negative impact on the bottom line of those companies who refuse to follow the law.

BINGO!!!!!!!!

Yes, we had an apple orchard owner say he couldn't hire school kids in the summer to pick his apples because they may get hurt and he would be sued. What he was really saying is, "If I hire an illegal and he gets hurt, I take him to the hospital and they pay for free and I pay nothing and he won't sue me. I get slave labor, don't have to pay any benefits or take any risks to make may larger profits. I lay it on the backs of the American citizens."

That's it in a nutshell.

Turn it around on them next time.

He wants cheap labor - i.e., no insurance benefits, etc. - so that the American taxpayer can subsidize his business by paying for healthcare, education and housing benefits on his behalf. If he would have followed the law at hiring time, he wouldn't be in this position.