Thread: IA-Agriprocessors child labor trial will be postponed

April 1, 2009, 5:43PM ET
By AMY LORENTZEN
Agriprocessors child labor trial will be postponed
DES MOINES, Iowa

The owner and former managers of an embattled northeast Iowa kosher slaughterhouse who are facing thousands of state child labor charges were granted a delay in trial and a change of venue during a court hearing Wednesday in Waterloo.

Judge Nathan Callahan continued the trial involving Agriprocessors Inc. of Postville and its owner and former leaders until Aug. 4. Trial had been scheduled for April 20.

The judge also ordered the trial to be moved about 70 miles from Allamakee County to Black Hawk County.

Attorneys for some of the defendants responded that the new location also is not acceptable. They will be given another chance, likely on July 14, to submit jury questionnaires and argue again for a different location.

Callahan will rule later on other arguments, including motions to dismiss.

Last September, the Iowa attorney general's office filed more than 9,000 charges -- one for each day a particular violation is alleged for each worker -- against the plant, its owners and former managers. Prosecutors accuse them of hiring minors and in some cases of having children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment.

The defendants include the company itself; plant owner Abraham Aaron Rubashkin; his son and former vice president Sholom Rubashkin; human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer; and human resource employees Laura Althouse and Karina Freund. In January, nearly a thousand new charges were added against Jeffrey Heasley, a beef production supervisor.

The Iowa attorney general's office confirmed late Wednesday that Althouse and Heasley were granted separate trials, but dates weren't immediately available.

The Agriprocessors plant was the site of a massive immigration raid last May that resulted in the arrest of 389 workers, many of them Guatemalan and Mexican nationals who served jail time and then were deported. It was one of the largest single-site raids in U.S. history.

Before the raid, Agriprocessors was the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant and employed about 1,000 people, or nearly half of Postville's population. The company later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ceased production. A buyer is currently being sought through auction and some production lines have reopened.

Agriprocessors also operated a plant near Gordon, Neb., that was not involved in the allegations.

Following the raid in Postville, a slew of federal and state charges were filed against owners and managers at the plant ranging from conspiracy to harbor undocumented immigrants to bank fraud. Some lower-level employees have pleaded guilty to charges, but most of the cases continue to work their way through the court system.

The state of Iowa alleges five types of violations of its child labor laws against the company and its owners and managers that include employing a child under age 18 in a meatpacking plant; employing a child under age 18 in an occupation that exposes the child to dangerous or poisonous chemicals; employing a child under age 16 who operated power machinery; employing a child under age 16 who worked during prohibited hours or more hours in a day than permitted by law; and employing a child under 16 who worked more days in a week than permitted by law.

An affidavit in that case said that children were exposed to dry ice and chlorine solutions and that children were operating conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers and power shears.

The affidavit includes more than 1,500 work hour violations, including children under age 16 who worked more than eight hours a day and more than 40 hours a week. Children under 16 also worked 12 hour days, and during the school year worked more than four hours a day and more than 28 hours a week, the affidavit said.

Wednesday's hearing was held in Black Hawk County, where Callahan is based, instead of Allamakee County where the charges were filed.


http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financia ... 9U0381.htm

April 01, 2009

As Expected: CAIR Pretty Fired up About Gold'n Plump Losing Court Case to Muslim Immigrants Demanding More Prayer Time.....
Just what they need, more encouragement....

ST. PAUL, Minn., April 1 - The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) today announced that more religious accommodation complaints may be resolved after Muslim workers' bias suits against a Minnesota-based poultry company were settled.


On Tuesday, a federal judge approved a $1.35 million religious discrimination settlement against Gold'n Plump Inc. As part of the settlement, the company will add a paid break to accommodate prayer in the workplace.

"The Gold'n Plump decision sets a new standard for religious accommodation in Minnesota," said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Taneeza Islam. "CAIR-MN's goal is to ensure that Muslim employees are afforded their religious rights and are free from discrimination. We are not asking for anything special, but we demand that employers understand and follow the law."


http://www.weaselzippers.net/blog/2009/ ... ding-.html