Postville, IA – New CEO of Agriprocessors: Change Is Coming, Will Unionize The Plant.

    40

    Postville, IA – The new chief executive officer of Agriprocessors, the kosher meatpacker targeted in an immigration raid and accused of child-labor violations, said Thursday that his company will make fundamental changes.

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    In a telephone interview with The Associated Press hours after his hiring was announced, Bernard Feldman said his appointment will quickly lead to changes, especially in the company’s personnel department and its ability to recruit skilled workers at its plant in Postville, Iowa.

    Feldman also said the company will consider cooperating with efforts to unionize the plant, a move that would be a radical shift for a company that has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight union representation at its distribution facility in Brooklyn.

    “I am independent and I have absolute control in decision-making,” Feldman said. “I am going to do whatever I think is right and best for the company.”

    Feldman, a New York attorney who specializes in corporate turnarounds, will lead the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking operation at a time when the company is fighting thousands of state criminal charges alleging child labor law violations at its Postville plant.

    His appointment also comes about four months after a federal raid led to the arrest of 389 workers on immigration charges.

    Feldman said Agriprocessors has improved its practices since the raid and put a professional team in place. He said the company has suffered a drop in production since the raid, and attributed that in large part to the plant lacking a skilled work force.

    “We have had a good, qualified competent work force in place prior to the raid … and we have tried to replace them and we are finding that the workers we have right now are not as productive in 10 hours as we had in eight,” he said.

    Feldman also stressed that he sees taking over the company as a noble calling. He said the Rubashkin family, which owns the Iowa plant and another in Nebraska, had been treated unfairly.

    “Let me say this: I have a deep regard for the Rubashkin family,” he said. “I am one of those attorneys that will only undertake an engagement if I believe wholeheartedly in the cause.”


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    40 Comments
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    mikey
    mikey
    15 years ago

    Good Luck.

    Now you get to fight with unions. And we all get to pay more for meat.

    But hopefully the headlines will disappear.

    Brucha
    Brucha
    15 years ago

    יהי רצון שתשרה שכינה במעשה ידיכם

    McCain-Palin 08
    McCain-Palin 08
    15 years ago

    Okay, can I get a million bucks

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I’m just wondering if he’s going to unionize the plant is he also going to get paid union wage…

    miamiyid
    miamiyid
    15 years ago

    theres a few jewish unions out there i’m sure they would sign up with one of those small jewish unions just to satisfy people..

    Milhouse
    Milhouse
    15 years ago

    It will be disappointing if union blackmail and thuggery will have won again. Once you contract this disease it’s very difficult to get rid of it.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    I hope it is not as it seems – that the mafioso union thugs may have won. If that’s the case good bye to affordable meat. If Rubashkin raises his prices his market share will plummet. It’s a no win situation. I would have rather sold the company than give in to blackmail. If they unionise, I will NOT buy from them – I don’t want to support the mafia.

    read article
    read article
    15 years ago

    read the article again, he never said they are going to unionize. all he said was that they are going to consider it.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Its clear. The UFCW met with the OU. The fix is in. All their thuggery won out. The union even went so far as to have one of their other unionized plants hire away Rubashkin employees for $11 per hour. UFCW has a website against the Rubashkin’s, they took ads out in Jewish papers impugning their kashrus, they have a deal with PETA to get Agri, they have ins with Obama, they have ins with the Iowa Governor. They are a mafia. They have won. They have destroyed, destroyed, destroyed this country. The Rubashkins sold out, the OU sold out, the whole country sold out. We must pass laws that will allow employees to vote a union out – easily.

    formely
    formely
    15 years ago

    workers have a right to go to a shop that is unionized or offers more money. Just like any consumer has a right to shop at any store to get the best price. They are not stealing workers they are saying we offer a better salary and work place, come if you want. They only have 100 opening, and will pick the cream of the crop because they can, rubashkin will get the bottom of the barrel workers and that is his choice.

    Those that want more money go, those that do not want, or do not have the skills to get the hired by the better paying shops, will go to Rubahskin. Just like when you buy any products.

    Do you want to make it illegal for workers not to be able to change a job, or for other companies to let others know they can get more money to work here. Would you want that for you. If so, I will propose you cannot check other stores to get a better price on products.

    No he should not be forced to unionize, but there is a price to pay, hire the lower skilled workers and have a high turnover rate because of the lower salary he is paying. That is simply supply and demand. But do not say that the workers cannot switch jobs to better their lives that is cruel.

    If companies in the area offer 11+ plus vacation plus benefits the better workers will go to that company to least skilled worker will go to Rubashkin and that is what has been happening. That is why he needs illagel or homeless people to work becuase he pay is so low. You get what you pay for.

    No he should not have to unionize or pay union wages and benifits. But he needs to remeber he woll onlt attarck the people who could not get jobs at the bettr paying shops

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Instead of being upset there is one simple solution. Walk into stores with a few people and tell the owner that if Rubashkin unionizes we will NOT buy their meats ans chickens.

    Consumers have the last say in this.

    This is like the idiots that complain baseball tickets are to expensive! OK, if you don’t like the price then don’t go to the games. It’s the fans that support the teams. People forget this little fact.

    The same applies for Rubashkin. If you do not like the prices or union DO NOT BUY RUBASHKIN and we can gurantee you that the prices will go down. (and union will lose out) No money no union no copmany!

    formely
    formely
    15 years ago

    many shops that produce meats are unionized and their meats are affordable for the masses and many Glatt Kosher plants are unionized and produce afforable meats. If other companies could produce affordable Glatt Kosher meats why can’t Rubashkin

    formely
    formely
    15 years ago

    read the history of the union, while some have grown corrupt and maybe to strong, read why unions where started. Workers where treated horribly,abuses where normal, dangerous conditiom where the norm, before union came into hold. 115 mainly Jews where killed in a fire because of the working conditions some where frum workers and owners. And some of the first union members organizers where frum Jews. read history. I guess you would love to go back to the good old days.

    PS If you study history, you will learn that is was the shop owners who hired the mafia to break people legs in they went on strike. They hired Stargers. yes yiddish work since in those days the mafia had many jews doing the dirty work of breaking legs, killings, acid throwing, mostly jews. Lepky, seigel, lansky, the Dutchman, the purple gang (said to be the most violent gang and even copane would not mess with them all gang members Jewish) The union brought in other mobs to protect the workers.

    PS this is weird, Murder Inc. the Jewish hit team had a few frum members, and there was even one who would not accept a job to kill anybody if it called for killing on Shobbos or Yom tov

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    miamiyid Says:

    theres a few jewish unions out there i’m sure they would sign up with one of those small jewish unions just to satisfy people..

    09-19-2008 – 3:49 PM

    ***************************************

    The ‘jewish’ unions are a farce and an insult to our intelligence. High on the list is local 17-18 (tov-chai) that has no benefits to speak of and is a tool of management. They have been in more lawsuits that you can shake a stick at and we are better off without them.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    formely Says:

    many shops that produce meats are unionized and their meats are affordable for the masses and many Glatt Kosher plants are unionized and produce afforable meats. If other companies could produce affordable Glatt Kosher meats why can’t Rubashkin.

    *****************************

    In the current business climate, if rubashkin accepts ANY union, there will be a massive price increase, more than what is called for.

    They have done this is the past (increasing prices to pay for fines and violations that they have accrued.)

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    There goes affordable meat. To ‘formerly’: history is all well and good but it’s the unions breaking legs now.

    to formely
    to formely
    15 years ago

    while you are right that a worker can work whereever they want too. it is shameful and downright dirty to have this job fair in another company’s back yard.

    to formely
    to formely
    15 years ago

    it is a known fact that before rubashkin went into the meat business and empire had a monopoly, the cost of kosher chicken was prohibitive. rubashkin has always been the most reasonably priced brand.

    yankel
    yankel
    15 years ago

    I wonder if formely worked formely for a Union or is still active in a Union. Years ago the masses did benefit from a union. But the last few decades they Union closed down many many shops and large factories (most of them Jewish). What the Union did (u gotta give credit where credit is due) for this great Country of ours, there is hardly anything produced in the US of A.

    berish
    15 years ago

    post 12 besides empire can you list me who else are under the union? sbi gered.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    i say if they let a union in, and the prices go up, we should boycott until they bankrupt. i for one, will not pay more for some communist union to make more money of my already expensive meat.

    AMG
    AMG
    15 years ago

    This shows that all of the bad publicity were lies meant to blackmail the owners to accept the union and it shows the Da’S are a bunch of crooks

    they are no better than the Mafia thugs who dress in busniess suits and they do not deserve the respect of any ethical person even though they have all of their fancy degrees.

    chaval al  hamoach
    chaval al hamoach
    15 years ago

    Bernard S. Feldman, the Rubashkin attorney who is now Agriprocessors’ new, Orthodox Union-promised “independent” CEO, told…

    …the Associated Press on Friday that the Rubashkin family, Agriprocessors’ owners, had been treated unfairly. Now, the Des Moines Register reports the flip side to that bizarre statement: Feldman thinks Agriprocessors workers have been treated fairly all along:

    …The company’s chief executive officer said he was unhappy about his Minnesota competitor’s plan to woo the Postville plant’s workers.

    “Certainly, I am not pleased with that decision. I believe

    it’s an inappropriate activity,” said Bernard S. Feldman, who was hired last week to run Agriprocessors.

    Feldman added that it’s a free country, and employers are allowed to offer jobs to prospective workers.

    He said Agriprocessors has treated its workers fairly, and he hopes they will stay with the company.…

    Meanwhile, Long Prairie Packing’s day long Postville job fair attracted 25 Agriprocessors workers in its first hour alone. And those workers had tales to tell:

    “I want to work for a good company forever,” said Florabelth De La Garza, 49, a feather cutter at Agriprocessors. “Here, they trick you and abuse you.”

    She and her husband Albert Lopez, 39, had only worked at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking company for 21 days. And already they said they were fed up.…

    Bill LaMarr, industrial relations manager for American Foods Groups, which owns Long Prairie Packing, told The Des Moines Register his company had heard of widespread displeasures with conditions and pay at Agriprocessors.

    He said the company hopes to hire about 100 workers for the plant in Minnesota and another in Nebraska. He said the company will help new workers move and find affordable housing, something Lopez and De La Garza said Agriprocessor had promised her, but later reneged on.

    “It’s nothing but a trick,” Lopez said of Agriprocessors promising to pay their rent. “We were sleeping on the street in a truck for three days.”

    De La Garza said they moved from meatpacking jobs in Greeley, Colo., after watching a television ad for jobs at Agriprocessors. The ad promised $10. A copy of her most recent pay stub shows Agriprocessors paid her $247.50 for 24.75 hours of work. De La Garza, though said she was shorted pay for more than six hours of work.

    “I work 31 hours, they pay for 24 hours. We are supposed to get 30 minute breaks. They only give us 20 minutes,” she said. “And they are abusive. Supervisors yell at you for no reason.”

    The AP adds:

    Another attendee, Ahmed Abdullahi, 25, said he moved to Postville three months ago to take what he thought was a higher paying job.

    He said he had moved from working at a Swift Meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., where he was making $13 an hour, to Postville after seeing an Agriprocessors add on GoogleJobs.com, which promised more.

    Abdullahi said he only makes a little more than $9 an hour after working in the beef kill department at Agriprocessors for three months.

    Abdullahi, who is originally from Minneapolis, said he is interested in the opportunity to find a job closer to home — one that pays what it advertises.

    Bernard S. Feldman is not acting like an independent CEO, he’s acting like the Rubashkin family’s attorney – which is all he really is.

    Walmart
    Walmart
    15 years ago

    UNIONS ARE EVIL!!

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    to formely Says:

    it is a known fact that before rubashkin went into the meat business and empire had a monopoly, the cost of kosher chicken was prohibitive. rubashkin has always been the most reasonably priced brand.

    09-20-2008 – 9:23 PM

    ***************************************

    It is not a known fact. Empire was reasonable prices. David Elliot was a better quality and therefore more expensive. Other brands were Queen Esther (coming out of St Louis), Manor Poultry, Dean, Falls, Galil, G and G, Philadelphia Poultry, to name a few.

    All were reasonably priced. Empire had no monopoly and Rubashkin was not even a factor.

    Do you want a monopoly? Look at Florida. Rubashkin sent the sister down there to ruin the market. Thet took a loss of millions of dollars a year to push Empire out of the market. The Empire distrubuters and stores went broke. Rubashkin now has the monopoly and charges heavily for it.

    You think that chicked was cheap there? Now we are paying the price.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    berish Says:

    post 12 besides empire can you list me who else are under the union? sbi gered.

    09-21-2008 – 12:32 AM

    ******************************************

    Try Alle in New York (local 17-18), JW Treuth where they shecht in Baltimore, Aurora Packers (where they also shecht). International Glatt.

    How many more do you want?

    If Rubashkin treated his workers better, there would be no need to unionize. Bad Boss = union comes in. Gabish?

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    This is all about Rubashkin competitors that were unable to compete on price and are doing all they can to bad mouth and malign Rubashkin out of jealousy and revenge – hoping that they go out of business.

    I think they are and always were honest and hard working people and doing a tremendous service to the klall. They may have been aggressive in order to succeed but that’s the way to run a successful

    company.

    All the cry babies and whiners citing these mostly bogus incidents of worker abuse are full of

    baloney.

    It is NOT abuse if these workers can go find better working conditions or pay elsewhere – This is a free country – go ahead.

    Charlie Hall
    Charlie Hall
    15 years ago

    “Thet took a loss of millions of dollars a year to push Empire out of the market. The Empire distrubuters and stores went broke. ”

    Isn’t predatory pricing to force a competitor out of business or steal its market share asur?

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Anonymous Says:

    This is all about Rubashkin competitors that were unable to compete on price and are doing all they can to bad mouth and malign Rubashkin out of jealousy and revenge – hoping that they go out of business.

    REALLY? WHO SAID WHAT AND WHEN? PRICE – ALL WERE THE SAME, GIVE OR TAKE A FEW CENTS IN EITHER DIRECTION.

    THE RUBASHKIN DELI WAS CHEAPER. IT WAS ALSO A CHEAPER QUALITY, THE ‘CLASSIC’ FRANKS AND SALAMI AND BALONEY WERE MADE FROM BEEF AND COMMUTATED CHICKEN BONES. IT SAYS SO ON THE LABEL.

    WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO DO IS SPREAD LIES AND MIS-INFORMATION JUST A FEW HOURS AFTER SELOCHOS. IT WON’T WORK.

    I think they are and always were honest and hard working people and doing a tremendous service to the klall. They may have been aggressive in order to succeed but that’s the way to run a successful

    company.

    HONEST AND AGGRESSIVE? ARE YOU TELLING US THAT TO BE HONEST AND AGGRESSIVE YOU MUST MAKE A CHILLUL HASHEM?

    SUCCESSFUL COMPANY? HOW ARE THEY SUCCESSFUL? WHAT SERVICE DID THEY DO TO KLAL YISROEL? AT THIS POINT, THEY CREATED SHORTAGES THAT WILL MAKE KLAL YISROEL PAY MORE MONEY FOR MEAT THAN BEFORE.

    All the cry babies and whiners citing these mostly bogus incidents of worker abuse are full of baloney.

    EVERYONE IS A LIAR EXCEPT FOR THE RUBASHKINS? OSHA, USDA, DEPT OF LABOR, ALL THE INJURED WORKERS ARE LIARS?

    It is NOT abuse if these workers can go find better working conditions or pay elsewhere – This is a free country – go ahead.

    UNDER WHOSE DEFINITION OF ABUSE? MY ANCESTORE LEFT HUNGARY BECAUSE THEY FOUND BETTER WORKING CONDITIONS IN AMERICA. SO – UNDER YOUR DEFINITION, THERE WAS NO ABUSE?

    Meatloaf
    Meatloaf
    15 years ago

    “Anonymous said …

    Try Alle in New York (local 17-18)”

    I don’t believe 17-18 is in Alle.

    17-18 is a well known “company” union. That is, it is no union at all, and offers no protections for the workers it “represents.” That’s why companies that try to bring them in an effort stop real organizing by real unions, usually find 17-18 thrown out by the NLRB.

    Look for Agri to try the same stunt. Of course they don’t have to allow the UFCW to organize the plant — they could get the Teamsters instead!

    Then again they could get UNITEHERE, that’s the union that represented a textile mill owned by Moshe Rubashkin. The Rubashkin’s collected union dues and then refused to send the dues to the union until they were forced to do so by the courts. The plant mysteriously burned to the ground and Moshe and his son now face prison and fines for their involvement in a variety of issues surrounding the plant. Yeah, maybe UNITE HERE will organize Agri – after all, they know the Rubushkins well.

    Policeman
    Policeman
    15 years ago

    The entire Rubashkin family are all multi-millionaires. Maybe they can charge a little bit less to the customers, pay the workers better, and still make a good profit?

    jj
    jj
    15 years ago

    Policeman Says:

    The entire Rubashkin family are all multi-millionaires. Maybe they can charge a little bit less to the customers, pay the workers better, and still make a good profit?

    09-21-2008 – 11:02 AM

    ==============================================

    The Rubashkin Bible does not allow that!

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Charlie Hall Says:

    “Thet took a loss of millions of dollars a year to push Empire out of the market. The Empire distrubuters and stores went broke. ”

    Isn’t predatory pricing to force a competitor out of business or steal its market share asur?

    **************************************

    I don’t know. That was a Rubashkin tactic, not mine.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    John Gotti and his family are all multi-millionaires. They are wonderful people to the neighborhood and donated a cancer wing to LIJ Shneider’s Memorial Hospital.

    We should start yelling that the government was bad mouthing them. We should protest that the Gotti’s are upright citizens.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    15 years ago

    Policeman

    As far as I know we still live in America a free country, it’s non of your business as long that they’re not breaking the law to tell the Rubashkins since they’re multi-millionaires that they should charge a little less and pay the workers a little more.

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Anonymous Says:

    Policeman

    As far as I know we still live in America a free country, it’s non of your business as long that they’re not breaking the law to tell the Rubashkins since they’re multi-millionaires that they should charge a little less and pay the workers a little more.

    09-21-2008 – 1:40 PM

    ****************************************

    You forget – we still have free speach in this countyy. Do not take away my freedom just so you can have yours.

    Am I my brother’s keeper? Yes, I am. We have an obligation to tell the Rubashkins that they are breaking the American laws and that the Chilul Hashem that they perpetuated was obscene.

    And they made money on the plight of others? Was the korbon of a zonah ever accepted??

    This is still a few days before Rosh Hashana. The Ribbono Shel Olam knows taht I am not perfect. Far from it. I only trying to help others see the forest while they are playing amoungst the trees. Hamayvin Yovin.

    Meatloaf
    Meatloaf
    15 years ago

    But think of all the people they have to support:

    Jim Martin

    Bernie Feldman

    Menachem Lubunsky

    Judah Engelmyer and other 5W friends

    Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie

    Rabbi Pesach Lerner

    Rabbi Wiesmandl

    Rabbi Zeilingold

    The entire Agudah

    The entire OU

    They have to support a lot of people, not to mention the fines they have to pay for Moshe, his son Sholom and others.

    Next to Wall Street, the Rubashkins are pikers when it comes to creating debt … but they are right up there.

    freeda
    freeda
    15 years ago

    Bernard S. Feldman, the Rubashkin attorney who is now Agriprocessors’ new, Orthodox Union-promised “independent” CEO, told…

    …the Associated Press on Friday that the Rubashkin family, Agriprocessors’ owners, had been treated unfairly. Now, the Des Moines Register reports the flip side to that bizarre statement: Feldman thinks Agriprocessors workers have been treated fairly all along:

    …The company’s chief executive officer said he was unhappy about his Minnesota competitor’s plan to woo the Postville plant’s workers.

    “Certainly, I am not pleased with that decision. I believe

    it’s an inappropriate activity,” said Bernard S. Feldman, who was hired last week to run Agriprocessors.

    Feldman added that it’s a free country, and employers are allowed to offer jobs to prospective workers.

    He said Agriprocessors has treated its workers fairly, and he hopes they will stay with the company.…

    Meanwhile, Long Prairie Packing’s day long Postville job fair attracted 25 Agriprocessors workers in its first hour alone. And those workers had tales to tell:

    “I want to work for a good company forever,” said Florabelth De La Garza, 49, a feather cutter at Agriprocessors. “Here, they trick you and abuse you.”

    She and her husband Albert Lopez, 39, had only worked at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking company for 21 days. And already they said they were fed up.…

    Bill LaMarr, industrial relations manager for American Foods Groups, which owns Long Prairie Packing, told The Des Moines Register his company had heard of widespread displeasures with conditions and pay at Agriprocessors.

    He said the company hopes to hire about 100 workers for the plant in Minnesota and another in Nebraska. He said the company will help new workers move and find affordable housing, something Lopez and De La Garza said Agriprocessor had promised her, but later reneged on.

    “It’s nothing but a trick,” Lopez said of Agriprocessors promising to pay their rent. “We were sleeping on the street in a truck for three days.”

    De La Garza said they moved from meatpacking jobs in Greeley, Colo., after watching a television ad for jobs at Agriprocessors. The ad promised $10. A copy of her most recent pay stub shows Agriprocessors paid her $247.50 for 24.75 hours of work. De La Garza, though said she was shorted pay for more than six hours of work.

    “I work 31 hours, they pay for 24 hours. We are supposed to get 30 minute breaks. They only give us 20 minutes,” she said. “And they are abusive. Supervisors yell at you for no reason.”

    The AP adds:

    Another attendee, Ahmed Abdullahi, 25, said he moved to Postville three months ago to take what he thought was a higher paying job.

    He said he had moved from working at a Swift Meatpacking plant in Greeley, Colo., where he was making $13 an hour, to Postville after seeing an Agriprocessors add on GoogleJobs.com, which promised more.

    Abdullahi said he only makes a little more than $9 an hour after working in the beef kill department at Agriprocessors for three months.

    Abdullahi, who is originally from Minneapolis, said he is interested in the opportunity to find a job closer to home — one that pays what it advertises.

    Bernard S. Feldman is not acting like an independent CEO, he’s acting like the Rubashkin family’s attorney – which is all he really is..

    anonymous
    anonymous
    15 years ago

    Where is milhouse and matzalocal 101? Are they looking for a new Shechita yet?

    Illegal Alien
    Illegal Alien
    15 years ago

    Hey Guys- What about the 389 illegal aliens who pretended not to know our laws when they broke them. We still have about 15 million more to get out of our country. They kill 25 people a day–what about that cost to all American Citizens.