Thread: NY Court OK's Kosher Meatpacker to Reopen Iowa Plant

Dec 2, 5:16 PM EST
Kosher meatpacker court OK to reopen Iowa plant

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) -- A bankruptcy court in New York has approved funding that will allow the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant to reopen.

A court-appointed bankruptcy trustee, Joseph Sarachek, says the court on Monday approved a $2.5 million advance from the First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis. The money will allow Agriprocessors Inc. to resume the processing of its inventory of about 750,000 chickens and hens through Jan. 9.

Sarachek says production at the company's plant in Postville, Iowa, could begin this week.

Agriprocessors has been accused of immigration and child-labor violations. First Bank is owed about $34 million by Agriprocessors and has foreclosed on the company, but without the advance the chickens would likely starve.

Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazetteonline.com/

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/ ... TE=DEFAULT

Shuttered Meat Plant Edges Back Into Business, but Its Town Is Still Struggling

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: December 4, 2008

A bankruptcy trustee reopened a kosher meat plant in Iowa on Wednesday in a move intended to comfort a town that has been economically crippled since 389 illegal immigrants were arrested at the plant in May.

But judging from an angry meeting on Wednesday night, the reopening of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville — and the rehiring of more than 200 workers — produced more acrimony than solace, with many workers upset that they had not been called back to their jobs.

Many workers also complained to the bankruptcy trustee, Joseph Sarachek, who organized the meeting, that the plant, until recently the nation’s largest kosher meat producer, had failed to pay them wages they were owed for the two or more weeks before it closed on Nov. 14.

“It was one of the most hostile meetings I’ve ever been to,â€