The Des Moines Register has been investigating the safety record at Agriprocessors in Postville IA and is not happy with what it found. For instance:
“Agriprocessors’ treatment of its workers – and state regulators’ treatment of the company – have been a source of controversy since May 12, when 389 workers were detained by federal agents in the nation’s largest immigration raid.
A Des Moines Register review of state records indicates that health and safety violations at Agriprocessors rarely result in large fines, although injuries are commonplace there.
The records show that:
• Company officials have repeatedly refused to let state inspectors inside the plant without first obtaining a court warrant. In one incident, inspectors had to go to the courthouse in Waukon and obtain the document. By then, it was too late to return and make the inspection, so the state officials had to book a hotel room and spend the night. They entered the plant the next day, but the delay resulted in company officials getting 24 hours’ notice of a planned inspection.
– Unsigned workplace-safety complaints are typically investigated by the state via telephone or fax, rather than by visiting the plant. In one case, inspectors drove to the Postville plant and were denied entry. After realizing the complaint was unsigned, the inspectors drove back to Des Moines without entering the plant.
• Fines for workplace safety violations in Iowa are typically cut by 25 percent to 75 percent from the amounts first proposed. In 2005, after the three amputation injuries at Agriprocessors, a state worker forgot to call company executives for a scheduled telephone conference about a proposed $10,000 fine. After a 45-minute delay, the official told company executives their time was worth a reduction in the fine, and he cut the penalty to $7,500.
• Company executives have failed to give workers protective gear to do certain jobs. For years, the plant didn’t provide protective clothing to employees who worked with corrosive chemicals. Protective jackets, pants and boots were available, but they were treated by Agriprocessors as personal clothing that had to be purchased from the plant.”
The article in full:
Agriprocessors escapes big fines for violations
By CLARK KAUFFMAN • ckauffman@dmreg.com • © 2008, Des Moines Register and Tribune Company • July 6, 2008
Carlos Torrez was in the middle of a 60-hour workweek at the Agriprocessors Inc. meat-processing plant in Postville when the mechanical saw he was using to separate chicken parts severed one of his fingers.

Continue reading Agriprocessors’ worker safety record

On May 12 ICE raided the Agriproccessors plant in Postville, IA, said to be with its 1,000 odd employees the largest kosher meat processing facility in the world. ICE arrested 389 workers for illegal status. This was heralded as the largest ICE raid ever. As it happened, The state of Iowa Workforce Development’s labor division had fined Agriprocessors $182,000 in October, 2007, for safety violations. In May of this year it reduced the fines to $42,750 as part of a negotiated settlement under which the company promises to remedy its practices. One of the key safety problems was mishandling of chemicals.
According to the Des Moines Register, the owner, New York City based Aaron Rubashkin, is a prime example of an employer who resists any form of accountability. It reported (quote follows):
Aaron Rubashkin blamed his troubles partly on the media, which he compared to the state-run news outlets he saw before he emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1953. He referred to American reporters as ‘the lynching press,’ and he dismissed their stories. ‘Everything is a lie,’ he said.
Rubashkin’s statements were criticized Wednesday by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has tried to organize the Postville plant.
‘We hope that authorities in Iowa, at the federal level and at the kosher certifying agencies, take notice of this company’s total unwillingness to accept responsibility for its actions,’ union spokesman Scott Frotman said in a prepared statement.
‘There is not a slaughterhouse in the country with a more reprehensible record of health and safety violations,’ Frotman said. ‘The fact that the Rubashkins are now on record accusing state and federal investigators of lying, and the fact that they would say the same thing about their own workers, shows just how morally bankrupt the management of this company is, and how important it is for Agriprocessors to be thoroughly investigated.’

This is the North Carolina – headquartered poultry processing firm which mistreated its injured workers and faked its safety reports. I have posted on this before. I do not know what share of its workforce are immigrants but I expect that a minority or a majority are. This kind of abuse is more easily accomplished with immigrant workers who are uninformed and/or intimidated. the North Carolina Governor is asking for more funds for safety enforcement. It sounds like the state safety regulators are dragging their feet. Thanks to Workcompcentral (subscription required), and to the Charlotte Observer for running the expose.
the Workcompcentral story in full:
Easley Requests More than $1 Million For Poultry Crackdown: Top [05/15/08]
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley has included more than $1 million in his 2008 budget to crack down on practices in the poultry industry that include underreporting of crippling injuries and forcing severely injured employees back to work.
Responding to a series of newspaper reports that began running in The Charlotte Observer last year, Easley released a $12.5 billion budget this week that includes $720,000 to replace inspectors and others laid off at the North Carolina Department of Labor because of funding cuts ordered by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Easley’s proposal calls for spending another $350,000 to hire occupational health nurses and two industrial hygienists for the North Carolina Division of Public Health.
“With the nature of these jobs, poultry plants would be the major focus,” Seth Effron, Easley’s deputy press secretary, said Wednesday. “He feels very strongly that all workers ought to be treated decently and humanely. There clearly needs to be a way to make sure that happens.”
The Observer reported that some poultry plants earned prize-winning safety records by forcing injured workers to return to work quickly enough to avoid the recording of “lost-time” accidents.

Continue reading Follow up on House of Raeford case

The New York Times reports how illegal farm workers obtain medical care for work and non work related conditions under the radar, shying away from clinics where they may be caught and favoring traditional cures. “They may visit a clinic or hospital if they are severely ill. But for many illegal immigrants, particularly indigenous Mexican groups like the Mixtecs, much of their health care is provided by a parallel system of spiritual healers, home remedies and self-medication…. the lack of access to conventional care reinforced a culture of self-medication..”
The story in full:
May 10, 2008
Illegal Farm Workers Get Health Care in Shadows
By KEVIN SACK
MADERA, Calif. — The curandera is weary from work. Three, four, five times a day, the immigrant farm workers knock on her apartment door, begging her to cure their ailments.
They complain of indigestion, of rashes, of post-traumatic panic attacks. Then there are the house calls that compel her to crate up her potions and herbs and drive across town, often after midnight, to escape the notice of immigration police.
“I’ve done so many cures that I’m exhausted; it gives me no time to rest,” said Herminia L. Arenas, 55, the curandera, or traditional healer, who has practiced in this Central Valley town since migrating 14 years ago from Oaxaca, in southern Mexico. “I want to retire, but I feel like I was sent here to help these people.”
The people need help because they are in the United States illegally and because they are poor. Few have health insurance, but the backbreaking nature of their work, along with the toxicity of American poverty, insure that many are ailing.

Continue reading how illegal farm workers from Mexico get healthcare

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) records with brief analysis every occupational death in the country. One of its reports deals only with deaths of Hispanic workers. Here it is.

I posted some time ago on this unique New York City-based NGO, which promotes what it calls “portable” labor rights – the right of a foreign worker to enjoy, back in her or his home country (such as Mexico), the right to claim labor rights for an infraction incurred while working in another country (such as the United States.)
Cathleeen Caron has been tirelessly promoting the concept of portability, focusing on the rights of Latin American workers whose rights were violated while in the United States. Below is a typical posting on her blog at her website:
Huetuetenango, Guatamala April 17, 2007 —
Global Workers traveled to the northwest state of Huehuetenango, the biggest migrant-sending state, to strengthen contacts with lawyers willing to collaborate with the program and identify some new ones. The goal is to have two advocates from three Guatemalan states selected for the initial training, which will likely occur in September. With the newly empowered advocate network trained and in place, Global Workers will be able to facilitate a heavy case load of labor cases for Guatemalan migrants.
A likely ally will be the Catholic Church’s Human Mobility Pastoral Service. The network, especially in Huehuetenango, is impressive. They have an educational, empowerment training program for pastoral lay agents. The program, which already includes information on migrant rights, commits the lay agents to conduct workshops in their parishes in order to pass on or multiply the new knowledge. With representatives in 30 of the 32 counties in Huehuetenango, the potential to reach out to migrants about their rights, is astonishing. The church also has a legal department to provide free legal services. Discussions are under way about the church’s formal collaboration with Global Workers in Huehuetenango.
While in Huehuetenango, Global Workers met with the Ministry of Labor’s local office to discuss the guest worker recruiter abuses. Although the local supervisor expressed keen interest in the issue, the lack of resources (the office does not even have a telephone) will likely limit their ability to investigate and halt the illegal recruitment practices.

In the summer of 2006, I reported on three studies on Katrina cleanup workers. In the last few months, a fourth one was been published.
In early summer of this year, Chicago-based Interfaith Work Justice published a report called Working on Faith. It addressed worker rights and protections among Katrina cleanup workers. Many of these workers were migrant workers.
Interfaith Work Justice interviewed 218 Katrina cleanup workers in mid 2006. It found that 47% did not receive all the wages they were promised, 55% were not paid overtimes after 40 hours a week, 58% said they were exposed the hazardous substances, and virtually all workers were unaware of the U.S. Department of Labor as a source of information about work rights and protections. IWJ called up the federal government to expand DOL’s resources to protect these workers.
IWJ maintains a network of 16 worker centers located in 13 states.

Per the public interest organization:
In the past few years, the Interfaith Worker Justice and local interfaith committees have been building partnerships with local, state, and national Department of Labor (DOL) staff. These partnerships have sought to:
* Inform workers, especially low-wage and immigrant workers, of their rights in the workplace. At the national level, bulletin inserts were jointly created in nine languages that have been and continue to be distributed to workers through congregations. In local communities, DOL staff have provided educational workshops to workers.
* Train advocates to better support workers in seeking justice in the workplace. Because many worker advocates—pastors, social workers, immigrant advocates, and community organizers— are unfamiliar with the basic labor laws, they often don’t recognize basic law law violations that workers experience. Local DOL staff have partnered with local interfaith groups to train advocates about labor laws, so they can be more effective advocates.
* Create safe spaces and ways for workers to file complaints with DOL offices. Many workers, especially immigrant workers, are fearful of government agencies. And no one would suggest that the DOL procedures are particularly user-friendly. Thus, DOL staff and religious advocates have partnered to find new ways to support workers in filing complaints. Some groups are testing new simplified complaint forms. Other groups are forming workers’ centers, where workers can drop in for help. Others are looking to revive parish-based labor schools that create a safe space for workers to both file complaints and learn to organize.
The best time to begin developing partnerships between the religious community and the DOL is now. More importantly, low-wage workers need the joint efforts of the religious community and government agencies in order to challenge unjust employers.
Contact your local DOL Wage and Hour office. Invite the director or deputy director to talk with members of your interfaith group, local congregation or union local. Ask the director to describe local industries with particular problems in your area. Discuss ways that the religious community might help meet the goals described above.
For more information
Contact Kim Bobo at kim@iwj.org.
Department of Labor
The Department of Labor has a website that provides many of its background information sheets. To visit, go to www.dol.gov. If you have a specific wage and hour question, you can call the new Wage-Hour toll-free information and helpline, available 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your time zone at 1-866-4USWAGE (1-866-487-9243).
Interstate Labor Standards Association (ILSA)
This is an organization of the state labor standards agencies that enforce such issues as child labor, wage and hour, prevailing wage, and some workplace safety. For a list of the state contacts and an overview of the issues covered by state labor organizations, visit www.ilsa.net.
Young Worker Safety and Health Network
This is a network of organizations working on young worker safety and health issues. For a list of all state labor agency child labor contacts, visit www.osha.gov/SLTC/teenworkers/networkmembers.html.

According to this report, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development and El Refugio of Newton, N.J., signed an alliance to develop workplace safety and health training programs to promote construction safety among Hispanic workers and employers.
El Refugio is a nonprofit outreach center for Hispanic families.
Under the alliance, OSHA will work with El Refugio to develop workplace safety and health training programs to educate the organization’s clients about fall, amputation, electrical, struck-by and crushed-in hazards and emergency response issues.
OSHA also will deliver its 10-hour construction and general industry courses to Hispanic employers and employees in both English and Spanish.
The agreement will remain in effect for two years.
“This alliance will expand our ability to protect employees who are often at risk because of a language barrier,” OSHA Parsippany, N.J., area office director Phil Peist said.
“OSHA looks forward to working with El Refugio and the state of New Jersey to accomplish this critical goal,” Peist added.
Safety and health alliances are part of the Department of Labor’s efforts to improve the health and safety of employees through cooperative partnerships with trade associations, labor organizations, employers and government agencies.
OSHA currently has more than 450 alliances throughout the nation with organizations committed to promoting safety and health in the workplace.

Thanks for Bill Zachry for bringing to my attention this San Francisco Chronicle article about training Mexican workers, in Mexico, about their employee rights. “Started in September, the Center for Migrant Rights is a small nonprofit group based in the central state of Zacatecas, which provides free legal aid to guest workers seeking compensation for injuries or missed pay. The workshops — this one was conducted in the central city of Celaya in Guanajuato state — emerged after some 20 workers who had returned from the United States decided to educate would-be migrants about the ins and outs of toiling in the United States.”
the Global Workers Justice Fund is trying to do something about ensuring legal representation of Hispanic workers in the U.S. when they have returned to their country of origin.
Mexico courses teach migrants American ways
(06-12) 04:00 PDT Celaya, Mexico — On a recent Sunday morning, a dozen burly men sat in a cinder-block garage, fixing their attention on the acronyms “OSHA,” “EPA” and “DOL” written on large pieces of paper.
“Why is it that we Mexicans only know about the migra (U.S. immigration officials) and the police?” asked Jesus Rojas of the Center for Migrant Rights. “Why not the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which oversees workplace safety? Why not the Department of Labor, which looks out for wage violations?”
Next, Rojas passed around a pay stub from his job in Delaware when he worked as a landscaper on a guest-worker visa. “Don’t trash these, file them away,” he said. “Being organized can help if you or your fellow workers are underpaid or not paid at all.”
Call it Immigration 101.
Started in September, the Center for Migrant Rights is a small nonprofit group based in the central state of Zacatecas, which provides free legal aid to guest workers seeking compensation for injuries or missed pay. The workshops — this one was conducted in the central city of Celaya in Guanajuato state — emerged after some 20 workers who had returned from the United States decided to educate would-be migrants about the ins and outs of toiling in the United States.
Since then, the center’s immigration attorneys have organized crash courses on U.S. labor law, the role of U.S. government agencies and previous civil rights struggles. The lawyers then accompanied the budding activists to workshops in their home states of Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Queretero and Veracruz, among others.
As the U.S. Congress remains indecisive on immigration reform, one thing is sure in the poor and dusty outskirts of Celaya — migrant workers, whether illegal or not, will remain vulnerable to exploitation by some U.S. employers.
“I wish somebody had told me about all of this before I left Mexico,” said the 52-year-old Rojas.

Continue reading Coaching Mexicans on labor rights in the U.S.