Labor
Obama's nominees for homeland security, labor and commerce posts are on right track to reverse Bush administration's immigration tactics, which attacked problem upside down, backward. Two share well-informed disdain for foolish, inadequate schemes like the border fence; the third is staunch defender of immigrants and workers, like those found working at hellish slaughterhouse in Iowa (for update click 'See also').
The editors
The New York Times 2008-12-26 (entry)
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Kosher slaughterhouse owners face 9,311 child-labor violations; two executives charged with felonies after 400 arrested in May immigration raid at Iowa plant. And: Barack Obama doesn't name meatpacker, but urges crackdown on employers who are taking advantage of undocumented workers (click 'See also') 'to avoid paying decent wages and providing decent benefits.'
By Tony Leys and Jennifer Jacobs
The Des Moines Register 2008-09-09 (entry)
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Iowa slaughterhouse workers treatment is disgrace. Bush administration abandoned mercy and proportionality, devised new, harsher traps for illegal workers. By treating desperate employees as criminal class, government is attempting to inflate illegals' menace to level that justifies its rabid efforts to capture and punish them. And: Immigrants' stories (click 'See also').
The editors
The New York Times 2008-08-01 (entry)
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Teens found working at kosher slaughterhouse during immigration raid; afterward, they described labor violations that could result in criminal charges, lawyers say. And: Demonstrators expected in Iowa to protest immigrant treatment at Agriprocessors; Jewish groups debate buying their meat, labeled Aaron's Best and Aaron's Choice. (click 'See also').
By Julia Preston
The New York Times 2008-07-27 (entry)
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Political standoff over 12 million mostly Mexican illegal immigrants, high land prices and water shortages move American companies to set up farming on more than 45,000 acres of land in three Mexican states, employing about 11,000. But cheaper labor and diesel fuel often are offset by lower productivity and high training costs, especially in food safety.
By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
The Associated Press; Fox News 2008-05-27 (entry)
After nearly 400 workers arrested in Iowa raid at meat-processing plant, many face deportation - some, dissolution of families - after pleading guilty to using fake documents so they could work. Because 697 people were on the complaint, many believe government is still hunting about 300 illegal immigrants. And: At hearing, lawmakers, advocates question why plant owners haven't been charged (click 'See also').
By Nigel Duara and Grant Schulte
The Des Moines Register 2008-05-24 (entry)
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Illegal immigrants arrested at Pilgrim's Pride chicken processing plant in Arkansas will be deported. Other than using fake documentation, U.S. Attorney says the accused are law-abiding and came here to better their lives and those of their families.
Arrests were part of sweep at company operations in Florida, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
By Jon Gambrell
The Associated Press; Houston Chronicle (TX) 2008-04-21 (entry)
After three years of gutting, clipping, boning and slicing turkeys at a rate of about 30 a minute at a poultry plant in the Carolinas, Karina Zorita, 32, struggles to grasp a spoon, hold a broom, brush her hair or pick up a glass of water with her wounded hands. That's wrong, and it's wrong for the thousands of poultry workers who clean and process America's best-selling meat.
The editors
The Charlotte Observer (NC) 2008-02-10 (entry)
Lawmakers promise hearings on poultry worker safety after The Charlotte (NC) Observer documents problems at House of Raeford Farms. Employees say company ignored, intimidated or fired mostly illegal immigrant workers hurt on the job. Company failed to record injuries; federal safety inspections at U.S. poultry plants have dropped to lowest point in 15 years.
By Peter St. Onge, Kerry Hall, Ames Alexander and Franco Ordoñez
The Charlotte Observer (NC) 2008-02-17 (entry)
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Six family members indicted on charges of beating and threatening Guatemalan and Mexican workers, locking them in trucks and forcing them to pick tomatoes and other produce in Florida. Indictment was announced as U.S. senator was touring Immokalee area, where advocates have been pressuring growers and Burger King to raise wages for tomato pickers.
The Associated Press 2008-01-18 (entry)
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Culinary union in Nevada, after considering candidates, endorses Barack Obama, NBC News reports. The group's 60,000 members work at casinos along the Las Vegas Strip and in Las Vegas, the airport, the hospital, industrial laundries and in Reno casinos.
By Mark Murray
NBC News 2008-01-08 (entry)
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"The Price of Sugar" focuses documentary lens on Dominican Republic and horrific conditions of mostly Haitian illegal immigrant sugar cane workers there, then tells story of Catholic priest who sets out to improve their lot.
By Stephen Farber
The Hollywood Reporter 2007-08-23 (entry)
Immigration officers, with help from sheriff's office, raid 500-employee Koch chicken processing company near Cincinnati and its headquarters in Chicago; many U.S. meat industry workers are immigrants, mainly Hispanics.
By Andrea Hopkins, with additional reporting by Bob Burgdorfer
Reuters 2007-08-28 (entry)
Growers, now hiring thousands of seasonal workers for peak harvest months, cry foul over crackdown on illegal immigrants, declaring it's an effort of government to look good at the expense of the people with the hardest and lowest paid jobs.
By Juliana Barbassa
Associated Press; Forbes.com 2007-08-16 (entry)
Bush administration deserves credit for pushing immigration reform, but enforcement-only plan for handling illegal immigrants could create potentially devastating consequences for farmers at harvest season.
The editors
Denver Post 2007-08-14 (entry)
Bush administration's plan for fines, sanctions against growers whose workers have improper documentation could be devastating to the coming fall harvest, and could encourage an underground economy, California farmers say.
By Ashley Gebb
Appeal-Democrat (CA) 2007-08-14 (entry)
