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  1. #1
    Administrator ALIPAC's Avatar
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    Workers who walked off the job meet with Smithfield manageme

    Workers who walked off the job meet with Smithfield management

    By ERIN GARTNER
    Associated Press Writer

    TAR HEEL, N.C.
    A small group of employees representing workers who walked off jobs at a Smithfield Foods Inc. slaughterhouse met Tuesday with company officials, who insisted they must fire workers who can't prove they have the legal right to work in the United States.

    About 1,000 nonunion workers, mostly Hispanic, walked off the job at the world's largest hog processing plant last week, upset the company fired workers it said provided false identification information.

    The employees who walked off returned to work over the weekend after the company agreed to rehire the fired workers and give them 60 days to provide proper identification documents.

    But the company said it stressed during Tuesday's two-hour meeting with about 20 workers that it could not keep any illegal immigrants on the payroll.

    "Unless they can provide the (documents), we will have to terminate them," said company spokesman Dennis Pittman. "They don't like it, but they understand it now. We would prefer to have a legal way to keep these people here."

    The walkout began Thursday, spurred on by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which claimed the job action shut down the mammoth plant. The company said the walkout only slowed production at the operation 25 miles south of Fayetteville where Smithfield slaughters up to 32,000 hogs a day.

    The workers have said they are upset with the company's decision to gather the names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and gender of workers at the plant. Smithfield said the effort was aimed at assuring federal officials the plant does not knowingly employ undocumented workers.

    About 500 to 600 workers were found to have unverifiable information, the company said. About 50 were fired for providing false information.

    The walkout ended Saturday after Smithfield representatives met with Rev. Carlos N. Arce, a Roman Catholic priest who helped broker the temporary settlement. Arce said after Tuesday's meeting the company has yet to offer a "permanent solution to the problem."

    "The workers came and they wanted to negotiate," Arce said. "The company said this wasn't a meeting to negotiate anything. It was only for information."

    The company said Tuesday's meeting was not with the union, which has tried for years to organize the plant's 5,000 employees and lost organizing elections in 1994 and 1997.

    "They're using immigration as an intimidation tool against workers who are finally standing up for their rights," said Eduardo Pena, a coordinator for the union, which has long complained about what it contends are unsafe working conditions at the plant.

    Shares of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor, closed down 23 cents at $26.77 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

    http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /611212555
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  3. #3

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    Yet another AMERICAN company bending to the whims of ILLEGAL ALIENS.

    They walked off there job??? There's plenty of legal people looking for work.
    Once fired, stay fired. Hire people who abide by OUR AMERICAN laws.
    There's a reason why Mexico is a 3rd world country.

    This company gave these illegals 60 days to get there act together? We all know it takes months & months to years to get legalized. "GET BACK IN LINE!" Hire those who paid there dues to get in our illustrious country.

    ==== copy of Letter sent to Smithfield ====

    I've been in 3 different unions in my life, 2 of which got me fired. As long as I work for the company, I have a job in the future. But do make working conditions tolerable, work a day in each of there shoes.
    I commend you for standing by our American laws it is these laws that made our country so great. It is so great that these ILLEGALS want in yet they do not abide by our laws & protest if we Americans try to enforce our laws. It is these people that do not need to be in the USA, there called undesirables and our laws state, "undesirables can be deported". Are not undesirable workers layed off or fired?

    Thank you.
    "An American"

    =======
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    YAH yah I know... same-o-same-o. Here's a new twist...
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  4. #4
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
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    The walkout ended Saturday after Smithfield representatives met with Rev. Carlos N. Arce, a Roman Catholic priest who helped broker the temporary settlement. Arce said after Tuesday's meeting the company has yet to offer a "permanent solution to the problem."

    "The workers came and they wanted to negotiate," Arce said. "The company said this wasn't a meeting to negotiate anything. It was only for information."
    That settlement being the re-hiring of aliens in violation of the law.


    The walkout began Thursday, spurred on by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which claimed the job action shut down the mammoth plant. The company said the walkout only slowed production at the operation 25 miles south of Fayetteville where Smithfield slaughters up to 32,000 hogs a day.
    "They're using immigration as an intimidation tool against workers who are finally standing up for their rights," said Eduardo Pena, a coordinator for the union, which has long complained about what it contends are unsafe working conditions at the plant.
    RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS should work well here.
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  5. #5
    MW
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    The walkout ended Saturday after Smithfield representatives met with Rev. Carlos N. Arce, a Roman Catholic priest who helped broker the temporary settlement. Arce said after Tuesday's meeting the company has yet to offer a "permanent solution to the problem."
    What kind of B.S. is this: "The company has yet to offer a permanent solution to the problem." The solution is to immediately fire each and every person that can't provide evidence of legal status in the United States. This isn't brain surgery!

    "The workers came and they wanted to negotiate," Arce said. "The company said this wasn't a meeting to negotiate anything. It was only for information."
    What is there to negotiate? Negotiations aren't an option, if you're an illegal immigrant you should go home, period, end of discussion!

    "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ** Edmund Burke**

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  6. #6
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    New Federal Regulation

    DHS has proposed a new regulation, not yet in effect, that requires companies to notify workers with "no match" letters that they must resolve the discrepancy within 60 days or be terminated.

    Smithfield apparently was being very proactive on this issue. They are right to fire workers who can't prove legal status, but it is fair to give workers 60 days to resolve discrepancies with Social Security numbers. In fact, the 500-600 workers whose information could not be confirmed should also be required to resolve the discrepancies or be fired.
    There are immigrants and there are illegal aliens. An immigrant comes here legally, obeys our laws, assimilates, and the only flags an immigrant waves is an American flag. There's no such thing as an illegal immigrant.

  7. #7
    luna_angel's Avatar
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    Ignorance

    :P

  8. #8
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    Where the Hell is ICE in all this? Here we have a major national news story documenting the fact that a number of workers at a large American company could not provide valid documents proving their eligibility to work in this country, yet the enforcement end of things is nowhere to be seen. This shouldn't be a negotiation between workers and the company, it should be an enforcement issue with those failing to maintain proper documentation being subject to investigation and, assuming that they are in fact here illegally, detention and deportation. Furthermore, given the stridency of the fellow workers, you would think that the feds would be interested in having a close look at their documents as well to determine if any of them were fakes or belonged to other people. What the hell?

  9. #9
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
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    Where the Hell is ICE in all this?
    They've been called.
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  10. #10
    bquasius's Avatar
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    ICE

    ICE is staffed thinly in the interior, mostly involved in detaining criminal illegal aliens for deportation. They do visit work sites sometimes, especially if there's a tip. I read only 10% of their spending is on interior enforcement; the rest at the borders, airports, etc.

    I wish our government would spend more on interior enforcement, particularly at the work place. I don't think spending on fences, etc. is as cost effective as working with employers to eliminate jobs for illegal immigrants. If the jobs disappear, illegal immigrants will deport themselves.

    The meat packing industry is notorious for employment of illegal immigrants. Meat packing jobs are among the least desirable. I visited a turkey processing plant earlier this year. Disgusting! Real wages in the meat packing industry, adjusted for inflation, have dropped drastically in the last 20 years, largely due to employment of illegal immigrants.

    If Smithfield, one of the largest in the industry, starts a trend, I predict tens or even hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants will lose their jobs, and I suspect many meat packing plants will have problems with staffing.

    We have quite a few meat packing plants here in Minnesota, the home of Hormel, which are having a hard time finding enough workers, even with all the illegal immigrants. Minnesota has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S.
    There are immigrants and there are illegal aliens. An immigrant comes here legally, obeys our laws, assimilates, and the only flags an immigrant waves is an American flag. There's no such thing as an illegal immigrant.

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