SUSAN KOOMAR
Record Senior Managing Editor
July 01, 2007

Questions about Iridium Industries reached the highest level of county government the day after a public hearing on financial aid for the business.

A $3.7 million tax-free federal bond issue was approved just one month before 81 illegal workers were arrested at the East Stroudsburg plastics plant.

The county's OK was based on assurances that the money for new equipment would preserve 130 full-time jobs at Iridium, said county Commissioner Donna Asure.

"For 130 jobs, who wouldn't want to approve that?" Asure said in an interview Thursday.

Commissioner Suzanne McCool decided not to sign documents giving county approval to the funding after a friend saw a Pocono Record report about the hearing, called McCool and put her in touch with an Iridium employee. The employee, Nancy Duggins, told McCool about illegal workers at Iridium.

"I figured it out in a few months. If I knew, they (the Iridium management) knew," said Duggins in a phone interview Friday.

McCool spoke to a second Iridium employee, Sharon Blewjas, who corroborated information from Duggins. The women described sweatshop conditions including cockroaches in the lunchroom and insufficient toilets for workers.

"I heard enough that I believed there was a problem," said McCool.

She shared her concerns with fellow commissioners Asure and Bob Nothstein.

All three had already voted to support the bond issue at the hearing.

"I think it was considered flimsy information and (the bond issue) already passed at the meeting and I had voted for it," said McCool.

McCool, the lone Democratic commissioner, was the last to receive Iridium's bond paperwork. Asure and Nothstein had signed it. Only two signatures were required.

McCool told Asure, "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel right signing this."

Nothstein said he would have deferred a decision on the project if workers had raised concerns at the public hearing.

"I don't believe the government runs on the basis of what a girlfriend tells a leader," he said. "Frankly, Suzanne has done this in other cases, gone in forgetting about the chain of command. It totally unravels the management functions in other departments."

Nothstein said McCool should have referred Iridium workers to immigration officials.

Asure contacted Chuck Leonard, the county's economic development director. The county and its economic development agency have "no authority to do anything" about illegal workers except contact federal and state agencies, said Leonard.

The 81 illegals arrested were temporary, part-time workers not included in the 130 jobs listed on the bond application, according to Asure and Leonard.

The county relies on state agencies such as the Department of Labor and Industry to verify job counts, said Leonard.

A business is at "significant risk if they're lying to Labor and Industry," said Leonard.

After McCool shared her worries, Asure called federal immigration officials and was told they want a person with direct knowledge to contact them.

McCool sent an e-mail about Iridium to John Casella, director of Monroe County CareerLink on June 1. She put Casella in touch with one of the Iridium workers; Casella spoke to the worker on June 4 and then with state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-176, who contacted federal officials.

The feds raided Iridium two weeks later. Iridium has not been charged with any wrongdoing and blames a temp agency for bringing illegal workers on site.

Nothstein said Iridium and the temp agency deserve due process if charged.

"There's a procedure to deal with this. Whoever's culpable's going to get whacked here — as it should be," he said.

Scavello has called on all Monroe County businesses to check the legal status of workers. He said he's received complaints about more than 30 other local employers that may have illegal immigrant problems.

Duggins and Blewjas have quit their jobs at Iridium.

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