Thread: IA-Workers in need flock to jobs at Postville plant

Workers in need flock to jobs at Postville plant
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • September 8, 2008


Postville, Ia. - New, penniless workers continue to flow into Postville from around the country, and many are struggling to start a decent life here, church officials say.

Local churches' weekly food giveaway, which used to draw about two dozen people, now attracts well over 100. Many people who took part in last Wednesday's session said they were new employees at Agriprocessors Inc., a meatpacking plant that federal immigration officials raided in May.


The Rev. Paul Ouderkirk, a Catholic priest who has helped Agriprocessors workers, said he is fed up with the plant's effects on the town. "It's just ridiculous," he said. "I go to bed each night thinking it can't be worse tomorrow morning. But then it is."

The company is trying to attract new workers to replace the hundreds who were arrested or fled when immigration agents raided the plant May 12. The company says it didn't realize those workers were illegal immigrants, and it says it has increased wages and is offering good opportunities for new workers, all of whom are checked for proper immigration papers.

But Ouderkirk and other critics say many new workers lack the resources to start life here.

Last week, dozens of people lined up on the sidewalk outside the storefront food pantry, waiting for volunteers to give them necessities, such as cereal, canned soup, military surplus rations, chicken nuggets and toilet paper.

Even those who had good things to say about the town and their new employer said they didn't want their names printed in the newspaper, because they said their supervisors had told them not to talk to reporters.

One of them, a 49-year-old man from Louisville, Ky., said he had been in Postville a week. A labor-recruiting firm used vans to bring him and 16 others to Postville, where they immediately found jobs at the meatpacking plant. The man said the work and pay rate had been satisfactory so far. "It's a job," he said. "You get 9-something an hour. You can't beat that."

He said his assignment at the plant was to clean machines and pick up meat that had fallen on the floor. He'd heard others complain about the work and the living conditions, but he did not join in. "I came here to work," he said. "I didn't come here to gripe and complain."

A woman standing near him in line agreed. But later, she spoke about a house where labor recruiters had placed her. At first, she said, she was expected to sleep on the floor in a dank basement. "I'd rather live on cardboard by the side of the road," she said.

Pableno Gutierrez stood off to the side, unsure whether to take the offerings from the church-run charity. "Strong men like us shouldn't have to wait in line just to get some damn food," he said before deciding he'd rather go hungry.

The Nebraska native said he'd been working at Agriprocessors since July, but quit last week because he couldn't get ahead. He showed a pay stub from mid-August, for a week in which he worked 59.25 hours but netted just $87.08. The deductions included $267.40 for a rental deposit and $187.72 for rent for a bedroom in a house he shares with three other workers. He showed an earlier check stub showing a deduction of $183 for deposit. His monthly rent was $385, he said.

Gutierrez said company officials and the landlords they work with made the arrangement sound reasonable when he signed papers. But he didn't realize he would work 60-hour weeks and be left with too little money to support himself.

In interviews, his landlord and his former employer denied doing anything wrong. The check was from Jacobson Cos., a Des Moines-based firm that has been doing the hiring for Agriprocessors since the raid. Marty Howard, a Jacobson lawyer and executive, said he didn't know the individual circumstances of the check, but he said his company is only making deductions that employees agree to beforehand.

Howard said he didn't see a major difference between having rent and deposit deducted from a paycheck, as in this case, or expecting people to make those payments independently after receiving a regular paycheck. Either way, he said, people have to decide if they can afford to live on the pay offered by a given job. "If a guy can't make it on that, then I guess he leaves," Howard said.

Gutierrez's landlord, Menahem Gabay, said that he no longer is asking the company to withhold rent from new tenants' paychecks.

Gabay said he started the practice only because so many people were coming to town with no money for deposits and first month's rent. He said he thought that he was giving them a break by agreeing to rent them an apartment if they would agree to have those costs taken out of their checks, but the practice caused too much confusion. Gabay said he has resumed his previous practice of requiring a deposit and first month's rent upfront.

An Agriprocessors executive agreed that the practice was fair. Chaim Abrahams, the plant's purchasing manager, said no one should expect a landlord to rent an apartment without any assurance of payment.

Abrahams acknowledged that the plant's work force has seen significant turnover this summer. He said many people have heard the starting wage has increased to about $10 an hour for unskilled labor, and they are coming to Postville to check out the situation.

"I think it's quite normal for people to try to come and get the opportunity to see what the work is like," Abrahams said. Some leave, he said, but an increasing number are staying.

Abrahams said his company has quietly moved to help new employees. He noted that Agriprocessors has donated hundreds of pounds of meat to the food pantry, and he said it also has agreed to take smaller rent payments from some people staying in rental housing Agriprocessors owns.

Organizers of a July protest march in Postville asked Agriprocessors to donate $100,000 to a humanitarian fund run by Ouderkirk's church, St. Bridget's. The fund has been used to help former and new employees with basic needs, not including the food bank. Ouderkirk said organizers have been spending about $90,000 per month from the fund. It is nearly empty, the priest said, despite hundreds of thousands of donated dollars from people around the country, including Jewish congregations concerned about the plight of people who worked at the nation's largest kosher meat plant.

At the time of the request, Agriprocessors' leaders said they would consider donating to the fund. Abrahams acknowledged last week that they have not made such a donation, but he said they have helped people in other ways.

Abrahams said the company has become a better employer and community member since the raid. It has increased pay and safety measures, he said, and it now uses a voluntary electronic system to ensure that all new employees are in the United States legally. "We've made a lot of improvement," he said.



http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... /1001/NEWS

The company is trying to attract new workers to replace the hundreds who were arrested or fled when immigration agents raided the plant May 12. The company says it didn't realize those workers were illegal immigrants, and it says it has increased wages and is offering good opportunities for new workers, all of whom are checked for proper immigration papers.

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