Is Smithfield Packing Using New Immigration Security Program To Target Union Organizers?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/5206

Is Smithfield Using New Immigration Security Program To Target Union Organizers?

By Doug Cunningham

Smithfield's Tar Heel, North Carolina hog processing plant has a history of breaking labor law with abusive practices aimed at stopping its workers from forming a union. And now the company appears to be using a new immigration security program called IMAGE to target union organizers. United Food and Commercial Workers media coordinator Leila McDowell.

: "Here it has threatened workers in the past with arrests by immigration authorities. Now it's able to make good on those threats and cast a pall of fear in the community and amongst the workers who have been trying to fight for their rights for many years. This is the wrong company. It's a law-breaking company. It has a history of using immigration laws to threaten and intimidate workers who are standing up for their rights in trying to form a union. And this is the wrong partner for that program. And so we are asking that they put that on hold."

AUDIO stroy here: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram

[Robson]

1. Breaking laws = lower wages = more profits

Such businesses and companies as Smithfield and thousands of others use employees as expendable commodities only to increase their bottom lines. Yeah sure employees are supposed to increase bottom lines, but not through illegal behavior.

If they happen to be illegal immigrants it's all the better as they(the Co.) then has blanket immunity from labor laws and threat of law suits. Never mind that they screw America out of decent paying jobs that would benefit all Americans from higher wage rates due to shortages of labor. A steady stream of illegals provides business with a steady stream of cheap labor and allows business to undercut American citizens.

These companies have a habit of shafting American citizens and breaking laws so that they can increase their profits.

[conscious evolution]

4. breaking laws so that they can increase their profits.

They will not be increasing profits from me anymore.
Anyone have a list of products they sell?

[Union Thug]

2. I would tell you what my dad's generation would have done, but then

they'd come after me, too - bwahahahaha.

[Fierce]

3. SOP.

nt

[pampango]

5. I thought we were in favor of cracking down on employers in

dealing with the issue of illegal immigration.


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/01/23/ap3352358.html

"Immigration officials on Dec. 12 arrested 1,297 illegal workers at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Texas, Colorado, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Utah." "The raids could cost the company an estimated $30 million."

If the Smithfield raid was an anti-union maneuver, it is reprehensible. If it is a part of a larger crackdown on employers of illegal workers, that would seem to be consistent with our goals.

http://www.lawnandlandscape.com/news/news.asp?ID=5055

"But for local African-Americans, the dramatic appearance of federal agents presented an unexpected opportunity. Crider suddenly raised pay at the plant. An advertisement in the weekly Forest-Blade newspaper blared "Increased Wages" at Crider, starting at $7 to $9 an hour - more than a dollar above what the company had paid many immigrant workers. The company began offering free transportation from nearby towns and free rooms in a company-owned dormitory near to the plant. For the first time in years, local officials say, Crider aggressively sought workers from the area's state-funded employment office - a key avenue for low-skilled workers to find jobs. Of 400 candidates sent to Crider - most of them black - the plant hired about 200."

In the aftermath of this immigration raid in Georgia, local minorities mostly Blacks were employed and wages were raised after the immigrant workers were replaced.

I believe immigrants help our economy more than they hurt it, but I admit that the price that is paid is often by blue collar workers or potential workers who are not hired or are paid lower wages because the immigrants will work for less. I don't pay the price in that same manner, but I support immigrants since they are attempting to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

[Robson]

6. I support immigration, but not illegal immigration for big business

I've had a position for years that I support immigration.....as long as it is legal and has been fully vetted through our political process.

If the country politically supports a million immigrants from Mexico a year coming here to hold down wages and fill those jobs that Bush says Americans won't do for $5 an hour, and expand the need for more government provided health care, and schools, then I could buy into it. Our democratic country will then have spoken.

But when these illegal immigrants come here uninvited and only at the behest of employers that want to improve their own profit margins and pass on all the other costs to every American who has no say in the matter, then I don't support it. But that's just me. Actually I prefer a country that isn't overpopulated and is able to manage and protect its environment too. That means we don't double our population every 50 years.