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Officials: Plant Gutted Labor Laws

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The New York Times

Published: July 27, 2008

POSTVILLE, Iowa - When federal immigration agents raided the kosher meatpacking plant here in May and rounded up 389 illegal immigrants, they found more than 20 underage workers, some as young as 13.

Now those young immigrants have begun to tell investigators about their jobs. Some said they worked shifts of 12 hours or more, wielding razor-edged knives and saws to slice freshly killed beef. Some worked through the night, sometimes six nights a week.

One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant's killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep.

At first, labor officials said the raid had disrupted federal and state investigations already under way at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation's largest kosher plant. The raid has drawn criticism for what some see as harsh tactics against the immigrants, with little action taken against their employers.

But in the aftermath of the arrests, labor investigators have reaped a bounty of new evidence from the testimony of illegal immigrants, teenagers and adults, who were caught in the raid. In formal declarations, immigrants have described pervasive labor violations at the plant, testimony that could result in criminal charges for Agriprocessors executives, labor law experts said.

Out of work and facing deportation proceedings, many of the immigrants say they now have nothing to lose in speaking up about the conditions in the plant. They have told investigators that they were routinely put to work without safety training and were forced to work long shifts without overtime or rest time. Underage workers said their bosses knew how young they were.

In a statement, Agriprocessors said it did not employ workers under 18 and would fire any underage worker found to have presented false documents to obtain work.

To investigate the child labor accusations, the federal Labor Department has joined with the Iowa Division of Labor Services in cooperation with the state attorney general's office, officials for the three agencies said.

At a meeting in Postville, Iowa, on Saturday, three members of the House Hispanic Caucus - including its chairman, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez, D-Ill. - heard seven immigrant minors describe working in the plant.

Other investigations are also under way. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is examining accusations of sexual harassment of women at the plant. Lawyers for the immigrants are preparing a suit under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act for wage and hour violations.

Federal justice and immigration officials, speaking Thursday at a hearing in Washington of the House Judiciary immigration subcommittee, said their investigations were continuing. A federal grand jury in Cedar Rapids is hearing evidence about Agriprocessors.

While federal prosecutors are primarily focusing on immigration charges, they may also be looking into labor violations. Search warrant documents filed in court before the raid, which was May 12, cited a report by an anonymous immigrant who was sent to work in the plant by immigration authorities as an undercover informant.

So far, 297 illegal immigrants from the May raid have been convicted of document fraud and other criminal charges, and most were sentenced to five months in prison, after which they will be deported.

Agriprocessors executives said they had begun an overhaul of the company's hiring and labor practices, starting with hiring a compliance officer, James G. Martin, a former U.S. attorney in Missouri. In an interview, Martin said the company had contracted an outside firm, the Jacobson Staffing Co., to handle its hiring, and new safety officers, including one former federal work safety inspector.

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