Thread: IA-Minnesota meat processor makes bid for Iowa workers

Minnesota meat processor makes bid for Iowa workers
By TOM BARTON • tbarton@dmreg.com • September 21, 2008

Postville, Ia. — The stories were all the same: shorted wages, abuse, discrimination, harassment and unkept promises.

"I want to work for a good company forever," said Florabelth De La Garza, 49, a feather cutter at Agriprocessors Inc. "Here, they trick you and abuse you."

She and her husband, Albert Lopez, 39, had worked at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking company for only 21 days. And already, they said, they were fed up.

They were two of nearly 25 people who filed by 10 a.m. into city-owned Turner Hall on Saturday morning for a job fair hosted by Long Prairie Packing of Long Prairie, Minn.


The couple joined a long list of workers who claim Agriprocessors' promises of good wages and safe, stable work have fallen short since the company has rebuilt its work force after the largest immigration raid in U.S. history up to that time had swept through the plant earlier this year.

Long Prairie Packing placed a large ad in Wednesday's Postville Herald-Leader, announcing it would pay at least $11 plus bonuses of up to $3,000 for workers who stay at least three months.

Agriprocessors was the site of a massive immigration raid in May, and it has been struggling to replace the hundreds of illegal immigrants who were arrested or fled. Its owner and four managers face state charges of illegally using child labor at the plant, which they deny.

The company's chief executive officer said he was unhappy about his Minnesota competitor's plan to woo the Postville plant's workers.

"Certainly, I am not pleased with that decision. I believe it's an inappropriate activity," said Bernard Feldman, who was hired last week to run Agriprocessors. Feldman added that it's a free country, and employers are allowed to offer jobs to prospective workers.

He said Agriprocessors has treated its workers fairly, and he hopes they will stay with the company.

Bill LaMarr, industrial relations manager for American Foods Groups, which owns Long Prairie Packing, told The Des Moines Register that his company had heard of widespread displeasure with conditions and pay at Agriprocessors.

He said the company hopes to hire about 100 workers for the plant in Minnesota and another in Nebraska. He said the company will help new workers move and find affordable housing, something Lopez and De La Garza said Agriprocessors had promised her, but later reneged on.

"It's nothing but a trick," Lopez said of Agriprocessors promising to pay their rent. "We were sleeping on the street in a truck for three days."

De La Garza said she and her husband moved from meatpacking jobs in Greeley, Colo., after seeing a television ad for jobs at Agriprocessors. The ad promised $10 an hour.

A copy of her most recent pay stub shows Agriprocessors paid her $247.50 for 24.75 hours of work. De La Garza, though, said she was shorted pay for more than six hours of work.

"I work 31 hours; they pay for 24 hours. We are supposed to get 30 minute breaks. They only give us 20 minutes," she said. "And they are abusive. Supervisors yell at you for no reason."

Another job fair attendee, Ahmed Abdullahi, 25, moved to Postville three months ago to take what he thought was a higher paying job. He said he had moved from working at a Swift Meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., where he was making $13 an hour, to Postville after seeing an Agriprocessors ad on GoogleJobs.com, which promised higher pay.

Abdullahi said he makes only a little more than $9 an hour after working in the beef kill department at Agriprocessors for three months. Abdullahi, who is originally from Minneapolis, said he is looking forward to the opportunity to find a job closer to home - one that pays what it advertises.

Not every employee was so hard on Agriprocessors.

Duane Sorrell, 45, who moved from Indianapolis to work at Agriprocessors in mid-July, said the pay is better than what he is used to and the working conditions are sanitary.

"It's real safe. The USDA is there all the time," Sorrell said. "You have to wear your mesh cutting gloves and mesh vest. If you cut corners, you get written up."

He said he saw the Long Prairie Packing flier, but dismissed it.

"I'm making $11.60 an hour now, and have a raise coming," Sorrell said. "It would be a lateral move. There wouldn't be more money. If I'm going to cut beef, I'm going to stay here and do it. There's chances to move up here because they're looking for managers and supervisors."

The job fair ends at 5 p.m. today.


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

Agriprocessors workers turn out for Minnesota plant's job fair
BY THOMAS BARTON • tbarton@dmreg.com • September 20, 2008

Read Comments(13)
Postville, Ia. – The stories were all the same: shorted wages, abuse, discrimination, harassment and unkept promises.

“I want to work for a good company forever,â€

""I want to work for a good company forever,"

Thats what the legal workers you replaced wanted any company that dumps longtime legal workers and hires Illegal aliens has already proven their ink.

Close them down and sell the assets to pay for the deportations and related coasts. Put the bosses in jail, next case

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http://www.alipac.us/article3556.html