http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...00320/1076/BIZ

Suit claiming Tyson hired illegals will go to trial

BY BILL POOVEY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. - A lawsuit that contends Tyson Foods depressed wages by hiring illegal immigrants and should pay damages to legal workers will go to trial in March 2008, a judge said Monday in a conference with attorneys.

The lawsuit contends that Tyson hired illegal immigrants at eight plants since April 1998.

U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier set the March 3, 2008, trial date after agreeing to allow an attorney for the world's largest meat company time to file a motion challenging the makeup of the class of plaintiffs before the court involves a mediator to attempt reaching a settlement.


"My client is not inclined to participate in anything that would lead to a settlement," said Tyson's lead attorney, Tom Green of Washington, D.C. Green said the legal fight is "about costing Tyson millions of dollars to be in a case we believe we ought not to be in."

The lead attorney for the plaintiffs, Howard W. Foster of Chicago, said he believes the total number of legal workers in the class ranges from 50,000 to 100,000. He has asked the court to force Tyson Foods to provide him a listing of all Tyson employees and their Social Security numbers, to be compared with Social Security records.

"I don't think we should be moving forward as a class action," Green said. "Unlawful hiring is a very, very individual situation."

He said businesses are required to examine identification documents that applicants provide and cannot discriminate if those documents appear valid.

"The test the government sets up does not guarantee that every employee in your plant is a lawful, documented eligible worker," Green said. "We are not guarantors." He said Tyson has also voluntarily participated in the government's "Basic Pilot" program intended to prevent the hiring of illegal workers and has not knowingly hired any illegal workers.

Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson, has said the claims in the lawsuit are "largely based on charges our company has already successfully defended."

Green in 2003 successfully defended Tyson and three former managers accused of conspiring to hire illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America for low-wage production jobs to boost profits. Two former Tyson managers who made plea deals were each sentenced to one year of probation.

Green and other Tyson attorneys had argued that if the company hired illegal workers, it was because of the underground market for phony immigration papers and the government's flawed system of screening immigrants.

The eight Tyson plants named in the lawsuit are at Shelbyville and Corydon, Ind.; Gadsden, Blountsville and Ashland, Ala.; Sedalia, Mo.; Center, Texas; and Glen Allen, Va.
WHY does this have to wait until MARCH 2008 to go to trial???????? Because MONEY buys influence???