DISQUS

vivt · 1 year ago

Postville Aftermath The public posturings of Latham, Braley, Judge et al. concerning the Postville disaster are completely disingenuous. The situation at Agriprocessors has been a catastrophe in the making for a long time. It is simply not credible for anyone in Iowa public office to have been surprised, in 2008, by a situation in Postville which has been brewing for over twenty years -- the number and provenance of the  "illegal immigrants" working at the plant, the abominable labor conditions that prevail.

The practice of facilitating "documentation" has  been, from the beginning, a routine part of Agriprocessors's  acquisition of (grossly underpaid) labor for the slaughterhouse floor. The practice has obviously continued unabated for many years now, clearly with a tacit awareness at all levels of Iowa state government, as the plant grew to its present size to include Mexicans and Guatemalans as well as the Russians and Eastern Europeans who have been brought in since the plant was established in the late-1980's.

Postville is an egregious instance of negligent governmental oversight allowing a corporate employer to prey on undocumented workers who are ultimately pawned in a high-visibility raid by ICE agents as convenience dictates. Agriprocessors lost one day of production on the killing floor. Assurances by DOL officials that detainees will receive (sub-minimum wage) back-pay owed them by the plant before they are deported are laughable.

Stephen Bloom's "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America" was published and widely reviewed over seven years ago. He was interviewed on this site on 5/13. Go back and read the book.