Thread: NYTimes-Agriprocessors: IAs Can't Join Unions

September 1, 2008
Meatpacker in Brooklyn Challenges a Union Vote
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Agriprocessors, the Brooklyn-based company that is the nation’s largest kosher meat producer, is well known for the labor troubles at its meatpacking plant in Iowa — federal agents detained 389 of its workers as illegal immigrants in May, and labor officials in Iowa have accused it of employing 57 under-age workers.

But Agriprocessors is also having labor troubles closer to home, with the company asking the United States Supreme Court to overturn a vote to unionize at its distribution center along the Brooklyn waterfront.

If successful, the company’s appeal could have repercussions at companies across the country: it is trying to persuade the Supreme Court to rule that illegal immigrants do not have the right to join labor unions.

In September 2005, the company’s Brooklyn employees voted 15 to 5 to unionize, with one ballot challenged. The workers, most of them immigrants from Mexico, complained of low pay, not receiving time-and-a-half for overtime and not having health insurance or paid holidays.

“It was a dirty place to work, and they treated some of the workers real bad,â€

Funny how Agriprocessors is using the result of its own illegal actions to try to get rid of the Union. I don't like Unions but in this case Agriprocessors should not be allowed to benefit. The Union vote should be run again ASAP.........MINUS the illegal workers. And both company and union should be responsible to ensure only LEGAL workers are employed and allowed into the union in the future.

Duplicate Post reply at earlier thread

http://www.alipac.us/ftopic-130190-0.html