Child Labor Charges For Iowa Meat Plant

The owner and managers of largest U.S. kosher meatpacking plant were charged Tuesday with more than 9,000 misdemeanors alleging that they hired minors and in some cases had children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws, meat grinders and power shears.

They are the first criminal charges against operators of the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, where nearly 400 illegal immigrants working at the facility were arrested in May in one of the largest single-site immigration raids in U.S. history.

The complaint filed by the Iowa attorney general's office said the violations involved 32 illegal-immigrant children under age 18, including seven who were younger than 16. Aside from handling dangerous equipment, the complaint also says children were exposed to dangerous chemicals such as chlorine solutions and dry ice.

The attorney general's office said the violations occurred from Sept. 9, 2007, to May 12, 2008, when the plant was raided by federal immigration agents.

Charged are the company itself, Agriprocessors Inc., plant owner Abraham Aaron Rubashkin; former plant manager Sholom Rubashkin; human resources manager Elizabeth Billmeyer; and Laura Althouse and Karina Freund, management employees in the company's human resources division.

Each defendant faces 9,311 individual counts - one for each day a particular violation is alleged for each worker. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said at a news conference on Tuesday that he would not elaborate on what evidence led to the indictment.

"All of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens. It was likewise shared knowledge among the defendants that many of those workers were minors," the affidavit said.

The charges are simple misdemeanors, each carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a fine of $65 to $625.

Miller said the case is the largest of its type he'd handled in his 26 years as attorney general.

Chaim Abrams, a manager at the plant, said in a statement that Agriprocessors "vehemently denies" the allegations. He said the underage workers - not the company - are to blame.

"All of the minors at issue lied about their age in order to gain employment at the company," he said. He said all the minors had signed documents stating that they were over 18.

"In order to convict, the state is going to have to prove that the defendants willfully violated the child labor laws," Abrams said. " ... The state will not be able to carry this burden of proof. Agriprocessors acted in good faith on the child labor issue. We look forward to our day in court."

Sonia Parras Konrad, an attorney representing more than 20 of the children, said her clients were as young as 14 when they started working at the plant.

"We don't need to see any papers to see that someone is a child," she said. "This was not one mistake, two mistakes, three mistakes, but many, many mistakes."

Parras Konrad said minors in the plant were treated the same as adults and often worked in the same conditions.

"They were hungry all the time, it was freezing cold or burning hot," Parras Konrad said the children told her.

The attorney general's office said the company encouraged job applicants to submit forged identification documents that were known to contain false information about their resident status, age and identity. It said the company's records also show that employees were not paid for all overtime worked.
By HENRY C. JACKSON Associated Press Writer

[thevicar1]

instead of raping and killing decades worth of trillions of dollars of war babys in iraq and afghanistan, they probably would have been left equally as dared and shocked and awed if we had but raped and killed a days worth of a billion dollars of war babys, and we probably would have looked equally as sadistic, stupid, and steadfast .. ----------------------------------------------- Posted by vechiblesss


Golly. I aint never seen anybody use so many words to say nuttin!

[frankinaz]

The Federal Government needs to throw the book at this company and the defendants. Make an example of them.
It also needs to deport the illegal immigrants-They
trespass into the U. S., then lie and forge paperwork to remain here illegally as well.
Well, it''s time both illegal immigrants (no matter where they come from), and the businesses that hire them be punished, and not rewarded, for their illegal actions.

[cjw3cma]

Just another Republican run company trying to do the right thing by abusing the law and raking in the under the table personal profits that are the BUSH WAY.

[avigil2]

Sounds like the meatpacking plant and the underaged illegals (as well as the illegal adults) are all at fault here. The co. should have requested proof of age AND immigration status and not depended on some kid''s word. And the kids obviously lied about their age, perhaps co-erced by their parents and other adults.

[AlwaysSmiling]

I should add to my earlier post, that I lived in a meat packing plant town. 90% of the time, you''d hear people say "Go back to Mexico" and "They''re stealing jobs from Americans." But when you said "Well the pack is hiring", their reply was that it was for white trash and beneath their stature in life to work there.

It was a place for "Americans" to send their kids during college, so the kids would do better in school.... "If you fail, you''ll end up working at the pack..."

Patrick.

[AlwaysSmiling]

During the time they operated in the US, they paid substandard wages to illegals anyway, so what is the difference, if there were still no jobs for Americans?

Posted by brianbwb at 01:59 AM : Sep 10, 2008
----------

They''re hiring.. So are the thousands of other meat packing plants that are open. If you''re looking for a job, why not go there?

Have a nice day:)
Patrick.

[thevicar1]

If your gonna drive off all the whetbacks from these jobs, all you have left is kids and welfare mothers.

[karlo59]

Are these people trying to treat Hispanics the same way the rest of the jews treat the muslims?
What is it with these zionist jews anyway? Go back to israel and treat your own kind like dirt.

[cfin5]

"children younger than 16 handle dangerous equipment such as circular saws, meat grinders and power shears."

GASP! The only place they are allowed to do that is the family farm!

Posted by eggy1620 at 07:00 AM : Sep 10, 2008 --- Really. My left eyebrow raised some when I read that. Never would have considered that an issue to publish,....unless I wanted to get laughed right off the Ponderosa for it. When I was younger than this, I helped my Dad out by cutting stacks and stacks of firewood all by myself. That means driving the truck (off road), dropping the trees, limbing off the brush, loading the truck, stacking it to dry near the house, so Dad wouldn''t have to buy fuel oil. We didn''t get this "allowance" thing. We earned our keep by pulling our own weight,....and then some. I know there are rules to follow, but Americans will ALWAYS be notorious for ignoring the nonsensical laws our public servants dream up by the "STACKS" every year.

[docpeter-2009]

Posted by vechiblesss at 10:39 PM : Sep 09, 2008

______________________________

I don''t know what you are on, BUT you really need to quit smoking that stuff before your brain damage becomes terminal.