Tyson Foods Inc., one of the world's largest poultry processors, was indicted December 19, 2001, charged with 36 counts of recruiting illegal workers from Mexico and transporting them to several of Tyson's 57 poultry processing plants in the Midwest and South. According to the indictment, developed over 2.5 years of undercover work, Tyson managers arranged with smugglers to pick up workers just inside the US border, and then organized transportation for them from the border to its plants. Tyson managers paid the smugglers $100 to $200 a worker in "recruitment fees." (The migrants also paid the smugglers a fee).
Tyson has 120,000 employees, annual sales of $11 billion, and accounts for 23 percent of the chicken market. IBP accounts for 27 percent of the US beef market and 18 percent of the pork market. Tyson has 26 union agreements; IBP has 35 union agreements. Total employment in the US meat and poultry processing industry is 400,000.
The assistant United States attorney in Chattanooga said, "It's much more productive, we think, to attack the source, the companies that recruit these illegals, than to pursue endless prosecutions of illegals at the border." Tyson issued a press release that asserted that the government brought the indictment only after it refused to pay a $100 million penalty for hiring illegal aliens, based on the assumption that: (1) Tyson paid lower wages because it hired unauthorized workers; and (2) Tyson should forfeit excess profits earned as a result of hiring illegals. Tyson said it refused to pay because the previous highest payment to resolve an immigration violation was $1.9 million.
Tyson and most meat processors use the INS's Basic Pilot program to verify the right to work of newly hired workers- employers submit the A-numbers of newly hired non-US citizens to the INS for verification. In this case, however, the government alleges that "Tyson utilized workers that were hired and provided to Tyson by temporary service agencies that did not utilize the ... Basic Pilot Program, well knowing that most of these workers were unauthorized for employment within the United States."
On January 7, 2002, a former Tyson Foods employee, Amador Anchondo-Rascon of Shelbyville, Tennessee, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to smuggle 2,000 illegal migrants into the country. Anchondao-Racon, a legal immigrant, could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and forfeiture of any gains from the alleged conspiracy, which began in 1994 , as well as deportation.
John Tyson, president of Tyson Foods, said that the US needs a guest worker program: "America is going to keep growing. There are going to be jobs available, and people are going to need to keep coming to this country if there (are) not going to be enough people around here" who will take low-wage jobs.
In March 2002, a suit was filed in Rock Island, Illinois, on behalf of IBP's legal workers seeking three times the difference in IBP wages compared to industry standards. The suit accuses IBP, which Tyson bought for $4.4 billion in 2001, of using an underground network of recruiters to bring illegal immigrants into the United States to work in its beef-packing plant in Joslin, Illinois.
According to the suit, the recruiters, who are paid $200 to $500 for each worker, are told to look for people who are "vulnerable, submissive, have little knowledge of the U.S. legal system and a pressing need for immediate employment." In return, the company gets employees who will work long hours in poor conditions for as little as $7 an hour, while other meatpacking plants start their unskilled workers at $13 an hour. IBP says that its starting wage at Joslin is $9 an hour.
Nebraska Beef is facing similar charges in a case that is expected to go to trial on April 15, 2002. Several Nebraska Beef manages and a company owner have been charged with conspiring to ship busloads of Mexican workers to Nebraska every few weeks to work in the meat-packing plant.
Operation Vanguard is coming to Missouri and Kansas. Under Vanguard, the INS subpoenas hiring documentation from employers and checks for discrepancies such as invalid Social Security numbers. The INS advises employers to tell workers with discrepancies to clear them up before the INS visits the work place.
Operation Vanguard was stopped in 1999 after complaints from meatpacking firms, the Hispanic community and the Social Security Administration, which refused to check SSNs. During Vanguard, the INS subpoenaed and checked hiring documents for 24,000 workers employed by 40 meatpacking plants. Discrepancies were found in the documentation of 4,762 workers, most of whom quit before the INS arrived to check employees- only 34 were arrested.
Safety. The United Food and Commercial Workers union filed charges with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in February 2002, charging that there was an "epidemic" of repetitive-stress injuries among 1,150 mostly immigrant workers at a Pilgrim's Pride Corp. chicken plant in Lufkin, Texas, near the Mexican border. Federal rules aimed at reducing repetitive-motion injuries were adopted in late 2000 by the outgoing Clinton administration, but were repealed by Congress weeks later, with encouragement from the new Bush administration.
The UFCW filed a spate of OSHA general-duty complaints in the late 1980s aimed at reducing repetitive-motion injuries in meatpacking plants. They led to more than a dozen settlements, many in the millions of dollars, and to congressional hearings. Eventually, OSHA adopted special guidelines for meatpacking plants, and began work on ergonomic regulations.
Labor. A hearing officer for the National Labor Relations Board has recommended a new election at Nebraska Beef. In an August 16, 2001 election, 452 Nebraska beef workers voted against being represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers union and 345 voted for the union. The union claims that Nebraska Beef officials committed 41 violations of labor law that prevented a fair election. Nebraska Beef received $7.5 million in tax credits to re-open the plant.
A campaign to represent 500 workers at a ConAgra Foods Inc. beef-packing plant in Omaha, Northern States Beef, got underway in March 2002. In an election on November 17, 2000, the plant's production workers voted 238-150 against having the UFCW represent them.
Virginia-based Smithfield Packing Co, the largest US pork processor, operates a 4,000-employee pork processing plant in Bladen County, North Carolina,. It was accused of unlawfully discouraging workers from supporting the UFCW in March 2002.
The Central Valley Meat Co. in Hanford, California agreed to pay current and former employees for unpaid overtime and the cost of supplies that were deducted from the workers' paychecks. Miner, Barnhill & Galland, representing some 920 workers employed on the kill floor at the plant between 1996 and 2000, said each could get about $1,100. Central Valley had high turnover; it currently employs 250 people, and said it agreed to settle the case rather than proceed with costly litigation.
In January 2002, the US Senate rejected an amendment to a proposed farm bill that would have limited the ability of packers to contract for cattle in advance of delivery. Similar amendments could be considered again when the farm bill debate resumes in 2002.
The US exports chicken legs to Russia-- one million tons in 2001 worth $600 million, or about 1.3 billion legs, eight percent of US chicken production, and 61 percent of the chicken eaten in Russia. The US produces chicken far more cheaply than Russia, which prompted the government to briefly ban US chicken imports in March-April 2002, saying that the US permits the use of banned antibiotics. Ukraine and Estonia are considering similar bans on US chicken imports.
Nancy Cleeland, "Union Decries Conditions at Pilgrim's Pride Chicken Plant," Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2002. Dane Schiller, "Tyson claims unfair targeting," San Antonio Express-News, February 14, 2002. John Taylor, "New election is possible at beef plant," Omaha World-herald, January 3, 2002. Carey Gillam, "Tyson charges 'tip of the iceberg,' Houston Chronicle, December 31, 2001. Jim Schoettler, "Immigrants admit labor scheme," Jacksonville (Fla.) Times-Union, January 16, 2002. Kevin Sack, "Under the counter, grocer provided immigrant workers," New York Times, January 14, 2002.
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