Thread: In Rubashkins’ Backyard, Another Tale of Labor Strife

In Rubashkins’ Backyard, Another Tale of Labor Strife
Kosher Giant Turns To Supreme Court in Fight With Immigrants

By Nathaniel Popper
Thu. Aug 14, 2008


FAMILY AFFAIR: A delivery truck waits outside the Agriprocessors warehouse in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn.

At the farthest end of the Brooklyn Wholesale Meat Market, just past Chow Trading Co. and Lancaster Quality Pork, an inconspicuous black-and-white sign marks the presence of a very conspicuous tenant.

The building houses the local warehouse for Agriprocessors, the largest kosher meat producer in the country. Agriprocessors is best known for its slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, which was raided in May in what authorities have called the largest single immigration raid ever. The raid has been followed by intense scrutiny of the way Agriprocessors treated the nearly 400 undocumented immigrants who were arrested.

But Agriprocessors’ legal collision with immigrants began long before the raid, here in Brooklyn, where dozens of workers move palettes of meat between refrigerated rooms and trucks that take the beef and poultry to stores and restaurants around New York. The company has been locked in legal battles for the past three years over its immigrant workers, who wanted to unionize the warehouse because of what they described as mistreatment.

“We were treated like garbage,â€

How can people be given labor protections when it's against the law or them to be LABORING!?

Supreme Court decision that granted undocumented immigrants protection under the National Labor Relations Act.

When will the Supreme Court grant citizens protection from invasion by illegal aliens?

Ok......SOOOOOOO where are the American workers that USED TO WORK for these companies? And many other companies as well.

LIFE, WORK,AND JOBS ALL got done before ALL these ILLEGALS came and took over these manual labor jobs!

I'LL TELL YOU.......GREED TOOK OVER........COMPANIES WANTED TO MAKE MORE PROFITS!

THROW the EMPLOYERS in PRISON and SHIP ILLEGALS BACK to their HOMELANDS let them do it the LEGAL WAY!

uniteasone, I think the Americans that used to hold these jobs are just too educated or just plain lazy to do hard work for fair pay, as seems to be the bent of this administration and their corporate buddies and lobbyists for foreign countries. Gotta remember those campaign contributions, you know.
And I will never forget, after our dear leader's speech ontop of the fire truck in NYC after 9/11, telling the American public to go shopping and then our distinguished DHS head (Tom Ridge) telling us to duct tape our windows incase of another terrorist attack.
Sorry to be so snarky, but at the moment that is all my sweet self allows me to write. I need another blood pressure pill.

Originally Posted by vortex

I think the Americans that used to hold these jobs are just too educated or just plain lazy to do hard work for fair pay,

A ridiculous and certainly false mantra uttered by illegal aliens and their open border advocates is that they do jobs that Americans won’t do. Just what do these God sends to our country do that American citizens and legal residents haven’t done before the illegals invaded in force just during and after 1986’s amnesty legislation? American jobs for American citizens, first and foremost. Pay a decent living wage with fair and reasonable benefits and there is no job Americans won't do.

Originally Posted by gofer

How can people be given labor protections when it's against the law or them to be LABORING!?

I wonder about that too, gofer.

The Labor Act was passed in 1984. The last two amnesties were passed in 86 and 96. Didn't the '96 amnesty make enforcement tighter?

This whole mess, IMO, raises some questions about just WHOM exactly contacted ICE about the IA workers.

If I remember correctly, the investigation in Postville was a couple of years in the making which means it started right around the time the union issue started to boil in Brooklyn and also gain traction in Iowa

I'm really beginning to wonder if the owners of Agriprocessors didn't drop the dime themselves in order to be rid of IAs who had become a major source of trouble and problems for them.

This may well be the reason for vague references to the owners "fully cooperating in the investigation" and why charges have yet to be filed against them