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Postville, IA - More Trouble for Agriprocessors |
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Aug 22, 2008 at 03:56 PM
News Source: AP
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Postville, IA - Iowa labor officials are accusing meatpacking plant Agriprocessors, the site of a big immigration raid this spring, of 31 new and repeat safety violations.
The Iowa Division of Labor Services on Friday proposed fining the Postville plant $101,000 for 21 serious violations, six repeat offenses and four non-serious violations.
Earlier this month, state labor officials accused Agriprocessors — the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant — of employing dozens of underage workers. In May, nearly 400 people were arrested there in the largest single-site immigration raid in U.S. history.
Agriprocessors has 15 days to respond to the safety allegations.
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Read Comments (30) — Post Yours »
1
Aug 22, 2008 at 05:32 PM Anonymous Says:
Does any body knows what SEIROUS violations could mean ?
1) the lunch truck did not arrived that day
2) add your own thoughts
2
Aug 22, 2008 at 05:54 PM Anonymous Says:
NEBICH
3
Aug 22, 2008 at 05:59 PM Anonymous Says:
This is great news - They'll pay their fines as is their duty - say they are sorry and go on with life and put all this behind them much to the chagrin of their jealous enemies that would just love to see them go out of business.
Luckily we live in a malchus shel chesed that are reasonable and wont put throw you in the gulag
for a couple of mistakes. Where is the don l'caf zechus where is the compassion for a fellow jew in trouble ? To all the vicious tormentors of Agri - Be very careful you will be judged by the same yardstick you use for your brother.
4
Aug 22, 2008 at 06:02 PM anon Says:
Once the Goverment is after you they will not stop - unless you have a Congressman or Senator to help - and that may not work.
If the Labor Department were to go after every food processor we would all be starving. If is almost impossible to avoid hiring illegals or checking their paperwork fully - there is a huge forgery industry that supplies illegals and it can take months to check out - especially in produce industries that use labor companies to 'book workers'.And many Hispanic illegals have multiple IDs and paperwork.
As per safety violations - we have construction workers that go through union safety programs and still do what they want and we get violations - impossible to stop - because you can't keep firing people and keep working.
5
Aug 22, 2008 at 06:22 PM anonymous Says:
i really dont feel bad for millionaires who just flout the law with repeat violations -they didnt care about the warnings and now they have to pay for it and stop saying dan lekaf zchus as if every one of the accusations is just people with a vendetta for some reason thats bs and no body honestly believes that . i personally have no personal feelings about rubashkin- i couldnt care less who they are -they break the law they pay.......end of story
6
Aug 22, 2008 at 06:38 PM Meatloaf Says:
To anon 6:02
I don't eat kosher meat from "construction workers."
A) The fines stem from an inspection in July - after the raid. You'd think the plant owners would have straightened up by then.
B) But Pesach Lerner didn't see anything out of the ordeinary - so OSHA must be wrong.
C) The fines total more then $100,000. It will be interesting to see if they get reduced this time.
D) The supervisor who pled guilty the other day, pled guilty to aiding and abetting his employer in hiring illegal immigrants.
Gut Shabbas
7
Aug 22, 2008 at 06:55 PM Anonymous Says:
They will always find something wrong. As long as the union is on your back, they will continue to 'report' things and they will be cited. No one is perfect and there is always 'something' that is wrong. Go to any meat packing place, hospital, nursing home, construction site, food establishment ... there will always be something that the inspectors will 'find' wrong.
8
Aug 22, 2008 at 07:18 PM RubashkinCritic Says:
For 20 years or so, AgriProcessors was ALL OK and never a problem.
All of a sudden, nothing good there!
Do I see some organized effort to drive them out of business or am I dreaming and should pinch myself?
9
Aug 23, 2008 at 07:23 PM Meatloaf Says:
Who said they were ALL OK for 20 years? There may have dozens of problems, but we just never heard about them. Then in 2005 or so EPA fined them for dumping feathers in the Postville sewer system and hit them with $600,000 in fines, then it was something else, then more and more.
Probelm is these people don't know how to run a plant and have been trying to do it by the seat of their pants.
Again, everyone wants to blame someone else - anyone but the owners. Sorry but it won't wash. There are no boogymen. Just incompetant, greedy yidden.
10
Aug 23, 2008 at 09:18 PM anonymous Says:
I really feel sorry for the people that think that Agri is doing something right and is being tormented by the unions or competitors who are trying to put them out of business.
Anonymous Says:
Does any body knows what SEIROUS violations could mean ?
1) the lunch truck did not arrived that day
2) add your own thoughts
08-22-2008 - 5:32 PM
**********************************
A hole in the floor that was not fixed for MONTHS. Not the first time they saw this. A person could fall into the hole. Unmarked loose tanks of gas that were not properly stored. Could cause explosion when someone smokes nearby.
Anonymous Says:
This is great news - They'll pay their fines as is their duty - say they are sorry and go on with life and put all this behind them much to the chagrin of their jealous enemies that would just love to see them go out of business.
---------------------------------------
Read the article. These were repeat violations and serious violations. They already paid the fines the last time and said they were sorry. BUT THEY DID NOT LEARN FROM THAT EXPERIENCE. They did the minimum to get by and put their workers lives and safety at risk.
Luckily we live in a malchus shel chesed that are reasonable and wont put throw you in the gulag
for a couple of mistakes.
------------------------------------
One, two mistakes, three. When will it end? When someone is killed or loses an arm? Oh, I forgot. There were workers that DID lose fingers and arms and what did the company do? They paid the fine and said they were sorry, until the next time it happened, AGAIN.
Where is the don l'caf zechus where is the compassion for a fellow jew in trouble ?
-------------------------------------
Where was their compassion for a fellow Jew (The rabbis who were not paid in 8 weeks? Where was their compassion for their employees?
To all the vicious tormentors of Agri - Be very careful you will be judged by the same yardstick you use for your brother.
08-22-2008 - 5:59 PM
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Sure, In a sodom world where I can hire illegal aliens, 13 year old babies, have huge multiple violations and I will answer "the unions and my competitors did this to me", because I am innocent.
11
Aug 23, 2008 at 10:40 PM Anonymous Says:
All of you guys and gals who would have a smile on your faaces if (heaven forbid) Agriprocessors was closed down, but not for too long, as Kosher meat prices would go sky high. Wait a minute, I fogot! There will always be Fink like from Monsey who would give the Daf Hyomi shiur, and then feed thousand of frum Jews "treif" Purdue chicken for ten years.
12
Aug 23, 2008 at 11:03 PM Anonymous Says:
I don't believe that there any large companies out there that will not have some violations found at inspections - there are a million potential sources for violations.
The correct yard stick to measure against is how do they compare with other similar sized companies in a simialr industry.
I don't have access to that information but my hunch is that they are no worse than any others.
(Maybe because I want to be dan l'xcaf zechus)
Many companies have cash flow problems and are struggling to recover from a (temporary) setback They don't want to let (some of) their (shochtim) workers go (and hire new cheaper labor - which I think they could) so they try to restructure & refinance to get back on their feet. They hope that their loyal workers are understanding ^ will bear with them during those trying times and they will be rewarded by keeping their jobs & hopefully bonuses for the tempoary hardships endured. (Again I am guilty of being dan l'caf zechus) instwad of painting a picture of greedy
bosses stuffing all their profits in investments
and pretending they have no money to pay the workers. This in my mind is such a ludicrous accusation that it can only be made by vicious jealous tormentors - any rational person would understand that it is in their best interest to keep theit employees happy at this sensitive time
and they wopuld gladly pay on time as they have done for all these years! But their enemies will twist EVERY bit of information that can be construed negativley yo MAXIMIZE DAMAGE to Agri.
There will be a judgement day and He will know the true intentions of these Agri bashers.
It's intersting to see that according to these people if you hire an illegal (or under age) alien for cleaning help or construction/yard work you are guilty of Sodomic practice. It makes me sick this hypocritical sinah - Feh !
13
Aug 23, 2008 at 11:23 PM berish Says:
most off the government officials are out to get agri since they are democratic liberals and agri paid over 24000 for the republican party and again once uncle sam is out to get you they will do it in every way they can even though the price off meat raised over 30% since the may 12 raid so what are you so bsimach meatloaf? may be your meatloaf is treif?
14
Aug 24, 2008 at 12:15 AM JJ Says:
anon Says:
Once the Goverment is after you they will not stop - unless you have a Congressman or Senator to help - and that may not work.
If the Labor Department were to go after every food processor we would all be starving. If is almost impossible to avoid hiring illegals or checking their paperwork fully - there is a huge forgery industry that supplies illegals and it can take months to check out - especially in produce industries that use labor companies to 'book workers'.And many Hispanic illegals have multiple IDs and paperwork.
As per safety violations - we have construction workers that go through union safety programs and still do what they want and we get violations - impossible to stop - because you can't keep firing people and keep working.
08-22-2008 - 6:02 PM
============================================
You say its almost impossible to check papers? i dont think so . If you concentrated on hiring people who speak englishproperly then i can almost guarentee you will be on the saFE SIDE BUT IF YOU KEEP ON LOOKING FOR ANYTHING BUT ENGLISH SPEAKING WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT??
15
Aug 24, 2008 at 12:17 AM JJ Says:
Anonymous Says:
All of you guys and gals who would have a smile on your faaces if (heaven forbid) Agriprocessors was closed down, but not for too long, as Kosher meat prices would go sky high. Wait a minute, I fogot! There will always be Fink like from Monsey who would give the Daf Hyomi shiur, and then feed thousand of frum Jews "treif" Purdue chicken for ten years.
08-23-2008 - 10:40 PM
===============================================
I HATE TO BREAK IT TO U BUT THIS IS WORSE THAN A FINK STORY . EXCEPT THAT THE NAME HAS CHANGED TO RUBASHKIN AND CO.
16
Aug 24, 2008 at 12:28 AM mashgiach @ Rubashkin Says:
For those of you who care to know the truth, I worked for the rubashkins for many years, and I can tell you first hand that all these allegations are untrue.
As some one mentioned above, Rubashkin paid min. wage and they have no reason to pay more for an unskilled new employee (although every employee earned at least $1.00 - $1.50 more then min. wage within the first 6 months to a year after starting his job at Agriprocessors)
Unfortunately people including Rabonim are very quick to judge others.
How Rabonim who have never seen this operation are able to speak against rubashkin stills boggles my min.
How so many frum people are ready to listen to Rabonim who they never considered Rabonim before this story unfolded stills boggles my mind.
Just a few facts for those who care for the truth:
Rubashkins did as the law requires: to make sure every person requesting a job bring id, etc. there is no law that states that you are required to have an fbi agent to make sure that the papers that the potential employee bring are legitimate. That's the governments’ job.
No one was forced to do the overtime hours. Employees would beg for it because they wanted to earn more to send to/help their families.
There was no one even close to being young as 13 years old as the papers are writing. of course if you offer a 13 yr old kid to speak negative about a Jewish company in return for a 4 year visa, who wouldn't say anything that could help them fill articles?
Every employee at rubashkin got a legal check that had all taxes deducted. NO ONE EVER GOT PAID IN CASH.
I hope AM YISROEL wakes up and stops beleiving all the garbage in the papers, as I'm sure we'll all read the pappers in the near future of the group of Rabonim that went to visit a few days ago and we'll hear true testemony.
Hopefully Rubashkin will one day recover from all this and they will be able to supply AM YISROEL with meat that's m'hadrin min hamihadrin.
17
Aug 24, 2008 at 01:12 AM post responsibly Please Says:
I doubt that a mashgiach would really know about the hiring practices that go on in the employment office. The bookkeepers would know a lot that no one else knows.Hiring illegals and underage is very simple.The employer does not have to do a complete bachground check. As long as the employee shows papers that look OK,it is the responsibility of the worker to prove to the government that he is legal.If he can't prove it,he gets thrown out.That's when the employer gets into trouble.Spanish illegals have a vast network of offices (travel agencies,insurance offices)that deal in illegal fake ID's.The owners of Agri,the Rubashkin employers should answer truthfully to the public and stop the false rumors from spreading.If not,the rumors will stand as credible.
18
Aug 24, 2008 at 01:19 AM berish Says:
jj you compare legal issues to a finkel story poor judgment man.
19
Aug 24, 2008 at 02:00 AM Mark Levin Says:
Time to get rid of all illegals without exceptions. Let's start all over and let them have proper LEGAL documentation.
20
Aug 24, 2008 at 02:02 AM Anonymous Says:
No matter how you slice it.. There are currently allot of Yiddishe family's who are making a living (parnoso) from working at Rubashkin. Let us keep that in mind and be aware that by closing them down we're risking leaving all these Yiddishe family's with out bread on their table.
21
Aug 24, 2008 at 02:07 AM jj Says:
berish Says:
jj you compare legal issues to a finkel story poor judgment man.
08-24-2008 - 1:19 AM
------------------------------------------------
Mr. Beirish.
Do u agree that *Where there is smoke there is fire*? .Suppose your Rabbi was caught stealing shul funds , would you continue getting his blessings? Why not would be your argument because what does stealing have to do with blessings? am i understanding you correctly. Mr Beirish, or is this case of agri different?
22
Aug 24, 2008 at 08:14 AM Anonymous Says:
Anonymous Says:
No matter how you slice it.. There are currently allot of Yiddishe family's who are making a living (parnoso) from working at Rubashkin. Let us keep that in mind and be aware that by closing them down we're risking leaving all these Yiddishe family's with out bread on their table.
08-24-2008 - 2:02 AM
----------------------------------------
And there were plenty of Yiddishe families that made a parnosa until Rubashkin wanted a bigger slice of the pie and put them out of business.
Washington Heights - the only Glatt Butcher store closed becaused Rubashkin wanted to sell pre-packaged meats to a goyish Supermarket. There is no longer a Glatt butcher store in Washington Heights.
Same for Philadelphia, Phoenix. Do not cry for the frum workers who might be put out of jobs because of Rubashkin's ineptitude, unless you cry for the Frum Yidden who not only lost their jobs but lost their businesses because of greed.
23
Aug 24, 2008 at 10:32 AM Avrohom Abba Says:
I like all the great tzidakas that were given and are still donated by the Rubashkin and related families.
Even the government is waiting 15 days for the Agri response before they pass judgement, so why should the jealous already give judgement in fifteen minutes??
Also, I would tell the Rubashkins if they asked for a public idea, I would say, hire some real legals and pay them fair wages and charge the public a few cents more and get past all these allegations and accusations and go back to producing without suspicion. I would get rid of EVERY SINGLE illegal in their factories, period. The illegals will sell each other out for a few bucks and then a new problem will begin.
Stop all the problems by being strong enough to fire every single one of them.
Then hire straight, law abiding citizens who have no criminal background.
24
Aug 24, 2008 at 10:33 AM berish Says:
mr. jj according to the american system until you are proven quilty by a jury you are not this applies yo yiden to. correct? and by braken this meshigner environments law does not mean they violate any kashrus law. you pay over four dollar by the pump because the white tetty bears in alaska get this heck with environments out.
25
Aug 24, 2008 at 10:46 AM usher buchwalter Says:
The Iowa meat processing plant violated laws which are an obligation to Yidden, non-Jews and Americans period. He ran afoul of the laws due to his rapacity of trying to corner the meat market and provison market. The Rambam has clear instruction retgarding unethical behavior of that sort and overeating. If Yidden would not be such gluttons and the whole issue would disappear. Squarer Chasidim do not eat beef. Good for their blood lipids and for solving this issue. Shechita was never intended for mass production.
26
Aug 24, 2008 at 10:50 AM usher buchwalter Says:
Regarding the chechsher zedek which is sheer nonsense. How will it be established. I guess a gremium of people will meet and decide that he is an "erlicher Yid", probably renewable every year and the group of deciders will they have a chesher zedek
27
Aug 24, 2008 at 11:27 AM berish Says:
usher you don't know what you are talking about square made a shcita last summer by alle plant in south america where they did shect over 600 head a day. next mass schita and what's about chicken does it not have to be glatt kosher? and as to your rambam can you show me where the rambam is?
28
Aug 24, 2008 at 01:39 PM too many opionions Says:
let the government waste their time going after contractors in NYC where scaffolding and cranes are crashing down on our heads. I have yet to hear of anyone dying from eating Rubashkin. Personally I do not know how Rubashkin compares to other meat processors, but if they were so bad why did it take so long for the government to come down on them? Perhaps there are other motivating factors for all the attacks on agriprocessors lately. Obviously the union that has been on their case can not be behind it because who ever heard of a union that is politically connected (I am kidding)? Or PETA or some Conservative Rabbi trying to define Kashrus in terms of his ethics.
I am not defending Agriprocessors, all I am saying is that most if not all of us really have no clue as to whether they are being singled out or not. One thing I do know is that when the government decides to do something sometimes they want to make a point and they go overboard, it just might be the case here. Jonathan Pollard might just be an example of this in case you don't believe the government could ever act in such a manner.
29
Aug 24, 2008 at 02:08 PM berish Says:
exactly ones irvin is dead they throw the trash on him he is mr. antrex of course IF he would be alive we would off proven is quilt... stop believe everything the government say they are saying what the poles show.
30
Aug 25, 2008 at 01:58 AM Matzahlocal101 Says:
How does Rubashkin compare to the industry? Very poorly. When ICE raided Swift beef and pork on Dec 12, 2006, they netted almost 1300 illegals. When they raided Agri they ONLY got 300 and change. Rubashkin should be ashamed of them selves!