Workers' Rights

August 6 - State labor investigators have identified 57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa, and have asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations, Dave Neil, the Iowa Labor Commissioner, said on Tuesday.

“The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” Mr. Neil said in a statement announcing the results of a seven-month investigation at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meat plant.

In a raid in May, 389 illegal immigrant workers were detained there in the largest immigration enforcement operation ever at a single workplace.

POSTVILLE, Iowa -- About 1,000 people, including Hispanic immigrants, Catholic clergy members, rabbis and activists, marched through the center of this farm town on Sunday and held a rally at the entrance to a kosher meatpacking plant that was raided in May by immigration authorities.

The march was called to protest working conditions in the plant, owned by Agriprocessors Inc., and to call for Congressional legislation to give legal status to illegal immigrants. The four rabbis, from Minnesota and Wisconsin, attended the march to publicize proposals to revise kosher food certification to include standards of corporate ethics and treatment of workers.

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 under-age 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.

POSTVILLE, IA; May 13 - In the biggest workplace immigration raid this year, federal agents swept into a kosher meat plant on Monday in Postville, Iowa, and arrested more than 300 workers.

The authorities said the workers were suspected of being in the United States illegally or of having participated in identity theft and the fraudulent use of Social Security numbers.

CHICAGO LABOR RECLAIMS MAY DAY

On Thursday, May 1, 2008, Chicago’s labor community will celebrate May Day as International Workers Day with a ceremony at the Haymarket Monument. Organized labor will call for fairness and justice in the workplace, including the right to organize and the Employee Free Choice Act, access to health care, fair trade agreements, and the right to earn a living wage.

Line speed in U.S. meat packing plants moves at a rate of about 400 head of cattle an hour - one every ten seconds - resulting in cuts, lacerations, and in some cases amputations or death.

Tell the Secretary of Agriculture to Slow Down the Line! Check out our printable postcard here.

Election Day is November 4, 2008! Vote Smart! 

This year, Americans will vote for their new President and Vice President, along with 35 Senate seats, all House seats, and gubernatorial positions in 11 states. In an effort to inform voters on important issues, we thought it would be useful to give you a Voter Guide that you can use and share with others before going to the polls in November. Our Voter Guide is non-partisan and is intended to be an educational tool on the Midwest Coalition’s three project areas enabling voters to make informed choices when deciding which candidate(s) to support.

AUSTIN (MN), Apr. 10 -- Workers sickened by progressive inflammatory neuropathy at meat-packing plants in three states have been on their own financially, but relief may be around the corner.

Slaughterhouse workers at Quality Pork Processors in Austin who continue their jobs, despite neurological symptoms from PIN, still get paid.

Yet out-of-pocket medical costs and work lost because of illness combine to strain family finances. So far, most workers apparently have been unable to get workers' compensation benefits.

OMAHA, Mar. 14 — Two meatpacking plants in Omaha face nearly identical federal lawsuits accusing them of not paying thousands of workers for all their work.

Lawyers for the workers are seeking class-action status for the lawsuits filed last week against Greater Omaha Packing Co. and Nebraska Beef Ltd. A total of 16 people - seven former employees and one current employee at each plant - are listed as plaintiffs.

Both companies have violated state and federal wage and labor laws for years, the lawsuits said.

GENEVA, Mar. 7 — A United Nations committee today issued a strongly worded critique of the United States' record on racial discrimination and urged the government to make sweeping reforms to policies affecting racial and ethnic minorities, women, and immigrants in this country.