Labor and immigration leaders condemn Agriprocessors
DES MOINES — An immigration reform advocate and a labor union leader on Monday accused Agriprocessors Inc. of exploiting its employees and violating health and safety regulations.
Their statements come a week after federal agents detained 389 employees at the Postville meatpacking plant on suspicion of violating immigration laws and other illegal activity.
Mark Lauritsen, international vice president for United Food and Commercial Workers, said Agriprocessors profits from an immigration system that targets working illegal immigrants but goes easy on the employers that hire them.
“Almost 400 hardworking men and women are in detention, and the men and women who abused them are free to walk the streets,” Lauritsen said.
United Food and Commercial Workers represents 1.3 million workers from a range of industries including meatpacking and retail food, according to the union’s Web site.
Lauritsen said Agriprocessors has a history of violating health and safety regulations and should face legal penalties.
He said the raid revealed that Agriprocessors had hired minors to work in the plant.
“If they can’t run an operation legally and by the books, I don’t think they should be selling meat to the American public,” he said.
Agriprocessors is the largest kosher meatpacking plant in the country, and the May 12 search at the plant was the largest single-site workplace raid in U.S. history.
To date, no charges have been filed against Agriprocessors.
A phone call to the company’s Postville headquarters was referred to Jim Fallon, a Kansas City-based public relations consultant, who forwarded a written statement from Chaim Abrahams, an Agriprocessors representative.
“As with any legal matter, Agriprocessors cannot comment about any specific allegation. The company is performing an independent investigation and will continue to cooperate with the government about this matter,” Abrahams said.
Lauritsen spoke during a telephone news conference hosted by America’s Voice, a Washington-based nonprofit organization pushing immigration reform. America’s Voice Director Frank Sharry, who also took part in the conference call, said raids such as the one in Postville do little to crack down on illegal immigration.
Raids are meant to “get headlines and make the government look tough” on immigration, Sharry said. But they don’t deter immigrants from entering the country illegally or scare them away once they’re in the United States, he said.
Sharry said the Agriprocessors raid spotlights a flawed immigration system that prosecutes workers but hands free passes to employers.
“Everyone knows that while action at the border is needed, the real frontline in immigration enforcement is at the workplace, at the point of hire,” he said. “We need to crack down on employers who are unscrupulous.”
He called for congressional hearings to look into business practices at Agriprocessors.
Fred Love can be contacted at (515) 243-0138 or fred.love@lee.net.