The Gazette of Cedar Rapids ran a series of stories
on immigration in the Cedar Rapids area in November 1997, noting that
in FY97, the INS apprehended 2,529 unauthorized foreigners in Iowa
and Nebraska. Only nine percent of those apprehended were caught at
work; most were detected after routine traffic stops or in crime
investigations.
According to the articles, meatpacking is the magnet attracting
immigrants to Iowa; the work requires little training or English
language skills. Jerry Heinauer, of the INS Omaha office estimates
that 25 percent of the meatpacking workers are unauthorized. US
Attorney Stephen Rapp said in an interview that "out-of-state
recruitment" of workers is a red flag for INS investigators, but that
many meatpackers use independent brokers as recruiters which gives
the companies "deniability" when unauthorized workers are found. In
some cases, the workers brought to Iowa by brokers have had
fraudulent documents.
IBP announced in October that it has joined the Basic Pilot
employee verification system, which permits IBP to check the social
security numbers of all newly hired workers. The INS raided an IBP
plant in June 1997, when it removed 130 of the 2,100 employees in
Joslin, Illinois. IBP employs about 38,000 workers at 23 plants
across nine states, with most earning between $7.00 and $11.00 an
hour.
In Virginia, the 1,800 workers at the Smithfield Packing Co. pork
processing plant in Smithfield, VA who are represented by the
Laborers' International Union of North America, will receive a $1 an
hour wage increase over the life of the four-year contract, or three
percent over four years, plus a new health plan and increased pension
benefits. The median first year wage increase in re-negotiated
contracts in 1997 is three percent.
The General Accounting Office is conducting a study, expected to
be released in February 1998, of the impacts of immigrant workers in
meatpacking plants on towns and cities in Nebraska and Iowa.
Poultry. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch on December 28, 1997
profiled Noel, Missouri, a town of 1,300 just a few years ago, is
believed now to have 2,000 Hispanics in the area. Most were drawn to
Noel by Hudson Foods Inc; 60 percent to 65 percent of Hudson's 1,400
employees are Hispanic. In 1993-94, McDonald county schools had no
Hispanics; in 1997-98, one third of the children in Noel Elementary
School are Hispanic. Hudson helped to start the multicultural center
and donated land for a soccer field.
In December 1997, the Occupational Health and Safety
Administration proposed fines of $840,000 against Hudson's Noel plant
for "willful safety and health violations" that have led to 300 cases
of cumulative trauma disorders. This is the second OSHA fine for
Hudson in 1997; Hudson is appealing both. The United Food and
Commercial Workers International Union represents Hudson employees.
Missouri has 10 major poultry operations, most of them in the
southwestern part of the state; Missouri has migrant centers in
Monett and Malden.
Tyson Foods Inc., the nation's largest poultry processor, capable
of processing 45 million chickens each week, will acquire
fifth-ranked Hudson in January 1998. About 20 percent of Tyson's
71,000 US employees are Hispanic. Tyson pleaded guilty in December
1997 to providing illegal gifts to former USDA secretary Mike Espy.
Many of the workers in midwestern meat and poultry processing are
recruited along the Texas-Mexican border by "independent recruiters"
who receive a bonus of up to $300 for each worker they refer who
stays on the job for 30 days. These recruiters often promise good
quality housing, ample fishing and other recreation opportunities,
and as many hours of work as the worker wants--some workers are
employed by two plants, working one shift at one plant, and another
shift at a different plant.
The San Diego Union-Tribune ran several stories on November 2,
1997 about the US jobs that attract unauthorized immigrants, opening
the series with the story of the 500 Guatemalans from Huehuetenango
who work at the Case Farms poultry plant in Morgantown, a city of
18,000 in Burke County, North Carolina. There were 344 Hispanics in
the county in the 1990 Census and an estimated 10,000 in 1997.
Like many poultry and meat processors, Case offers a finder's fee
to all persons who recruit new workers, typically $50 to $200 for
each worker who remains on the job at least 30 days. "Independent"
recruiters go to places with workers--in this example to Immokalee,
Florida in 1991--and earn $1,000 to $2,000 for returning with a van
load of new workers; sometimes workers also pay the van driver for
the jobs. After they are hired, they in turn tell their friends and
relatives about the jobs, setting private labor recruitment networks
in motion. According to the article, the INS has not been in
Morgantown in the 1990s.
Case Farms workers earn $55 per day, $6.85 per hour, compared with
$3 per day in Guatemala. After three months of employment, workers
are eligible for health benefits, one week of vacation and five paid
holidays a year. In 1995, Case workers voted to have the Laborers
Union represent them, a response to worker complaints of fast
assembly lines and "lack of respect."
Chicken processing is a year-round job, so many of the workers
have their families with them in the US. Many families live in
trailers on the edge of Morgantown. Many of the children speak Mayan
dialects instead of Spanish and the local school system is debating
how best to teach them.
The accompanying articles described an Arkansas labor
contractor/recruiter who advertised a toll-free number on
Spanish-language radio stations along the southwest border so that
workers in the border area seeking jobs in the midwest could contact
him. Employers paid $200 to $300 a worker, and the workers who used
his services paid the recruiter another $250-$350 for fraudulent work
documents.
In December 1997, Texas Rural Legal Aid sued Case Farms of
Winesburg, Ohio in Del Rio, Texas, on behalf of 14 workers, charging
that the poultry processor sent a recruiter, America's Tempcorps, to
south Texas promising jobs, free housing and transportation to and
from work. But the workers charged that were forced to pay for poor
housing and rides to work, and those who didn't have the money had it
deducted from their paychecks -- putting their pay below the federal
minimum wage.
Case says that its 400 workers, most Guatemalan, in Ohio are paid
about $6.65 an hour, much better than $1 per day in Guatemala. Case
says that Rural Opportunities Inc., a social service agency based in
Alliance, Ohio, takes care of the workers' social needs. The INS has
apprehended about 100 unauthorized workers in the Case Ohio plant and
has two pending cases against Case, which was fined $16,000 in 1995
for employing illegal workers. The United Food & Commercial
Workers Union is trying to organize workers at the plant.
In California, some 2,250 workers at Foster Farms went on strike
October 8-27, 1997 at the world's largest chicken slaughterhouse.
Foster processes 550,000 chickens a day. Foster hired replacement
workers, which prompted charges that the company was hiring illegal
alien workers.
Foster Farms workers, who are represented by the United Food and
Commercial Workers, currently earn $8 per hour. Workers voted 1,372
to 517 to accept a new contract that provided a $1,000 bonus for
returning workers. Foster offered a 1.5 percent annual wage increase
($0.65) over five years, plus $1,000 a year in bonuses, but also
asked employees to pay up to $600 a year for health insurance, up
from the current $230 a year. Foster Farms had sales of $825 million
in 1996.
Wisconsin dairy farms paid workers an average $21,261 in 1996,
according to the Dairy Personnel Management Conference in December
1996, but they face increased difficulties hiring workers in a state
where the average manufacturing pay is $29,875. Hourly wages for
part-time milkers range from $6.50 to $10. Most milkers stay less
than two years on one farm.
Bill Lambrecht, "Influx of Hispanic workers alters culture of
small southwestern Missouri towns," St Louis Post-Dispatch, December
28, 1997. Rick Ruggles, "Impact of Meatpacking Plants Studied," Omaha
World-Herald, December 22, 1997. Marcus Stern, "Legislators put focus
on fences, not jobs," San Diego Union-Tribune, November 3, 1997. Rick
Barrett, "Dairy farms in hiring crisis," Wisconsin State Journal,
November 9, 1997. Steve Rubenstein, "Foster Farms threatens to
replace striking Central Valley workers," San Francisco Chronicle,
October 18, 1997; Gazette of Cedar Rapids,
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