Fiege Films

On the front page of The New York Times today, there’s an article entitled, “After Iowa Raid, Immigrants Fuel Labor Inquiries,” about how testimony from the immigrants detained during the raid last May on the Agriprocessors kosher meatpacking plant in Iowa has produced evidence of severe labor violations at the plant.  This article by Julia Preston adds to a growing library of mainstream press that chronicles the flagrant abuse of workers and rampant violations of labor laws that are standard operating procedure in the meat processing industry.  Like The Charlotte Observer series on the poultry processing industry, published last February, today’s article echoes many of the atrocities that my wife, Anita Grabowski, has heard about first-hand from poultry workers, since she began working with them in 2002, and that we explored in our documentary film, Mississippi Chicken.

Preston reports how federal officials found workers as young as 13 working at the Agriprocessors plant and how undercover informants witnessed supervisors and rabbis verbally and physically abusing the workers, including one supervisor who blindfolded a Guatemalan immigrant worker with duct tape and then hit him with a meat hook.  Another Guatemalan, who was under-age and regularly worked 17 hours a day without consistent overtime pay, described how a rabbi yelled at him and kicked him, causing a serious knife cut that required stitches.  His supervisor then forced him to continue working while injured, which caused his stitches to rupture.

The article notes that many of these workers have now spoken up about the persistent labor violations they experienced, because they have already been arrested and are undergoing deportation proceedings, so they are no longer staying quiet for fear of employer retaliation or deportation.  During production of Mississippi Chicken and continually through Anita’s work as a workers’ rights advocate, we’ve found that fear of retaliation leads to the overwhelming silence of immigrant workers when faced with violations of their rights.  The vast majority of workers decide that they can endure the abuses but that they cannot afford to lose their jobs.  Employers are well aware of the precarious economic and legal state in which undocumented immigrants live, and they exploit that status for their own economic gain, often in violation of U.S. law.

Interestingly, the article mentions temporary U visas, which are sometimes granted to immigrant victims of crimes who assist in law enforcement investigations.  The visas allow them to come forward and speak openly about the abuse or crime without fear of having the tables turned on them as the “criminal”.  The police abuse case in Canton, Mississippi, that is featured in Mississippi Chicken involved a sting operation in which immigrants assisted the police in catching an officer who was extorting immigrants for bribes.  Anita and her colleagues helped many of the immigrants involved in the case obtain U visas, which facilitated their participation in the investigation and ultimately in the conviction of the corrupt police officer.  U visas are truly effective in changing the power dynamic by providing legal protection for the victim or whistle blower.  This type of visa is relatively new and has not been used frequently, but it is an extremely powerful tool in fighting the criminal activity of employers, law enforcement officers, or anyone else who illegally exploits immigrants.

The Bush Administration has consistently taken aggressive action against undocumented workers while looking the other way when employers violate U.S. law (again, see The Charlotte Observer series).  As the American public becomes increasingly aware of the brutal and lawless behavior of these employers, maybe we as a nation can move beyond the politics of fear that are blocking the immigration debate and, instead, start to talk about real policy change, where employers are held accountable for creating safe and fair workplaces for all who work there, and where immigrants have a place to legally participate in the economic and social fabric of this country.

Read today’s Times article here.