Yahoo: New Blog--The Lookout: Years after immigration raid, Iowa town feels poorer and less stable

[Jumbo]

It's long, but very interesting.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/years-immigration-raid-iowa-town-feels-poorer-less-133035414.html

Here's an excerpt from the very end of the piece:

What the federal immigration raid did not accomplish, however, is returning the meatpacking plant to how it was in the past, when Iowa-born Postville residents were paid middle-class wages to work on the all-beef kill floor. Harlan White, a retired appliance repairman and volunteer firefighter, said he made $2 an hour in 1960 (which, in inflation-adjusted dollars, would now be more than $15 an hour) to carry used cow hides from the plant's basement and pack them onto a train, one of the lowest-paying jobs at the company. In 1981, the Hygrade beef plant in Storm Lake, a four-hour drive west of Postville, paid $19 an hour as a starting salary--$47 an hour in today's dollars.

Workers at Agri Star now start out at $8.50 an hour, according to Eduardo and Mayor Rekow, a lower wage than they were offered three years ago in the aftermath of the raid. Rekow says some non-immigrants from Postville work in the plant's clerical office, but he's not aware of any who work on the line.

[Destino]

No matter what the reasoning, if you get rid of 20% of the working population you've removed the same amount of consumers from an area. Consumers create and sustain jobs. Some areas might be able to rebound from a 1/5th hit but I can't imagine a small town doing well after taking a hit like that.

[visionary]

They left out the part where the hordes of happy locals eagerly took back the jobs that had been stolen from them by the darned, thieving illegals....

Right?

[No_Pressure]

So the alternative would be to let illegals stay because they'll work for a lot less money?

How about we have minimum wage keep up with cost of living or historic relationships between wage and cost of living? Costs have gone way up for average Americans, wages have stayed more or less the same for a while now which isn't to say more or less the same in relation to their costs of course. Why should we be happier with exploiting cheap labor? Because it saves us the trouble of enacting true labor reform and paying working classes a reasonable salary for "unskilled" but nonetheless dangerous, important, and dirty work? If that's what fans of illegal immigration are arguing then they're in favor of letting these immigrants become our new dominant poor and exploited class in America. For a long time it was black people and on the side it was women and immigrants. Now we're shifting a lot of it over to our current illegal immigrants I take it? Fun fun fun. Don't take care of our own, offer slightly better (better than Mexico) yet still ****ty circumstances to a group of EXTREMELY DESPERATE people.

Go America!

[The Brave Little Toaster Oven]

I bet the crime rate dropped though

[AsburySkinsFan]

How about we have minimum wage keep up with cost of living or historic relationships between wage and cost of living? Costs have gone way up for average Americans

So your plan to lower the cost of living is to raise the minimum wage which in turn raises the cost of products?

I am not saying that there should be no minimum wage but to use the argument that minimum wage needs to be higher and then complain about product prices is contradictory.

[mojobo]

So the alternative would be to let illegals stay because they'll work for a lot less money?

How about we have minimum wage keep up with cost of living or historic relationships between wage and cost of living? Costs have gone way up for average Americans, wages have stayed more or less the same for a while now which isn't to say more or less the same in relation to their costs of course. Why should we be happier with exploiting cheap labor? Because it saves us the trouble of enacting true labor reform and paying working classes a reasonable salary for "unskilled" but nonetheless dangerous, important, and dirty work? If that's what fans of illegal immigration are arguing then they're in favor of letting these immigrants become our new dominant poor and exploited class in America. For a long time it was black people and on the side it was women and immigrants. Now we're shifting a lot of it over to our current illegal immigrants I take it? Fun fun fun. Don't take care of our own, offer slightly better (better than Mexico) yet still ****ty circumstances to a group of EXTREMELY DESPERATE people.

Go America!

So instead of allowing people who freely chose to leave their culture, friends and community at what seems to be the economic benefit of the community you would rather have them all deported back to Mexico? Despite the very poor conditions by our standards I seriously doubt they would give up everything they know to come here in the numbers they do if they were only marginally better off. If the immigrants benefit from coming here, the community benefits (economically at least) from them coming here what are you using to justify kicking them out?

[twa]

longing for the past when SS was 3% and unemployment ins,workers comp,workplace safety bs, didn't eat up profits?

The days of cheap energy,cheap health ins and no EPA,no 99 weeks unemployment ,ect?

Somebody's got to pay for this crap Pedro.

[AsburySkinsFan]

longing for the past when SS was 3% and unemployment ins,workers comp,workplace safety bs, didn't eat up profits?

Yeah that worker's comp, and worker's safety crap is just government BS! No way that employers should have to create safe working environments for their employees, and no way they should have to pay when their employees get hurt on the job. I long for those days too...1700's Europe where kids can be used to crawl through the machinery and get killed. Those were the days. Long hours, little pay, deplorable safety conditions, man that's the life.

The days of cheap energy,cheap health ins and no EPA,no 99 weeks unemployment ,ect?

Somebody's got to pay for this crap Pedro.

Apparently someone does, but it is amazing to me that companies can still make a profit, I mean you'd think that listening to the GOP that every company would be going bankrupt. Sorry, but this is more proof of corporate greed, instead of taking less profit they jack up their prices, because taking less profit is an anathema to our corporate worshipers.

[twa]

Listening to some of ya'll I'm surprised they ain't all bankrupt.

Life be hard

FNOhWV_DiR4

[endzone_dave]

"Harlan White, a retired appliance repairman and volunteer firefighter, said he made $2 an hour in 1960 (which, in inflation-adjusted dollars, would now be more than $15 an hour) to carry used cow hides from the plant's basement and pack them onto a train, one of the lowest-paying jobs at the company. In 1981, the Hygrade beef plant in Storm Lake, a four-hour drive west of Postville, paid $19 an hour as a starting salary--$47 an hour in today's dollars."

So people want to make $15 an hour to carry cow hides around? Do people in Storm Lake really expect to make $47 an hour working at a beef plant?

If the only skill you have to offer a company is to carry stuff, how much do you expect to make?

[twa]

No wonder it went bankrupt eh?

Now they long for the good old days of illegals slaving processing chickens:silly:

[Thiebear]

Either grant Amnesty to non-felons or remove them, the fed-vacuum created is causing chaos.

(I again think we should just open borders above/below and we-all maintain our own ID's but have to pay 3% more in taxes in other Canada/Mexico).

7.50-19$hr should not be a problem for a company vs. shadow labor that runs when Ice arrives.

[Larry]

So people want to make $15 an hour to carry cow hides around? Do people in Storm Lake really expect to make $47 an hour working at a beef plant?

Just pointing out . . .

1) The article doesn't say that they want $47 an hour.

2) What the article does say is:

a) $47 an hour

used to be

the market wage

.

Right now, what the company's offering is $8 an hour.

c) And pretty much all of those jobs are filled by immigrants.

(Whether that's because Americans won't take $8 an hour for that job, or because the company chooses to hire immigrants over Americans, it doesn't say.)

[twa]

47 is the market wage that they went bankrupt and closed at....Ah,the good old days when business was not viable.

I wonder how well the new company is doing at $8 and reduced to chickens?

---------- Post added December-8th-2011 at 10:23 AM ----------

For those that want a little more flesh to the story

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1450239

scroll down

[Riggo-toni]

I hated nearly all of W's domestic policies, but his unpopular push for a guest worker program would've been a good move. Thanks for the article Jumbo. Very interesting from all sides.

[No_Pressure]

So instead of allowing people who freely chose to leave their culture, friends and community at what seems to be the economic benefit of the community you would rather have them all deported back to Mexico? Despite the very poor conditions by our standards I seriously doubt they would give up everything they know to come here in the numbers they do if they were only marginally better off. If the immigrants benefit from coming here, the community benefits (economically at least) from them coming here what are you using to justify kicking them out?

So if these people are desperate enough to do ****ty jobs for less than reasonable wages, we should let them? After all, its better than the even ****tier conditions they would face otherwise, right? That is exploitation. By supposedly "helping" immigrants we're merely exploiting them, and yes to answer your question I would rather have them be in their own country where they aren't our burden. You are advocating exploiting a desperate group of people and paying them wages the privileged classes in America won't work for, on the basis that it may suck but it sucks less than their home country so the immigrants are happy about it.

Many women were happy to be able to enter the workforce and hold factory jobs in the late 1800's and early 1900's. They were paid much lower wages than men but they were alright with that at the time because it was better than nothing. The bosses of the time argued that what they were doing wasn't a bad thing because even though they were paying women less to do the same ****ty, dangerous jobs as men, they were helping those women in the long run by providing a better situation than being say, prostitutes. It was exploitation then, and it is exploitation now. Nobody should be comfortable with giving immigrants the jobs "we don't want to do". We should feel ashamed for allowing companies to pay wages that human beings can't properly survive on in this country with our standard of living.

So your plan to lower the cost of living is to raise the minimum wage which in turn raises the cost of products?

I am not saying that there should be no minimum wage but to use the argument that minimum wage needs to be higher and then complain about product prices is contradictory.

I didn't say to lower the cost of living, I said to keep pace with what it was historically. If food was 30 cents and you got paid a dollar an hour, then when food is 3 dollars you should be paid 10 per hour right? Well no, its more like food prices increase 10 times and wages increase 4 times. Something is wrong with that picture. If the company could pay proper wages in the 60's and 70's and sell meat for pennies per pound, why can't they do a similar thing today. Oh I know, inflation has increased, their costs for transportation have surely increased. I'll be willing to bet their profit margins have increased dramatically as well, but rather than paying their employees well they likely pay their executives better today than they did in the past. Paying your employees more money doesn't mean you have to raise prices. In the past however you didn't have quite the same widespread profit margin idiocy. You bring in generation after generation of workers who desperately work for less and less money each time they're hired. You increase your product prices to cover your increased costs and inflation then you pocket the rest. Instead of making 500k one of their presidents gets to make 1,000,000 and 50 other people get ****ed down to $8.50 per hour.

But nobody will work for $8.50 per hour! It isn't a wage a normal American family can survive on!

Well, luckily we have this class of people called immigrants that we can easily exploit for cheap labor! Hooray!

[Destino]

47 is the market wage that they went bankrupt and closed at....Ah,the good old days when business was not viable.

I wonder how well the new company is doing at $8 and reduced to chickens?

I'm not seeing that in the article. $47 dollars an hour is the equivalent of what a different beef plant, Hygrade, plaid it's workers in 1981 when they were paying their employees $19 dollars an hour.

I'd like to know what he owners are making compared to the owners in 1981. Consumers create more jobs than investors or anyone else and reducing their income harms the nations as a whole.

[twa]

I'm not seeing that in the article. $47 dollars an hour is the equivalent of what a different beef plant, Hygrade, plaid it's workers in 1981 when they were paying their employees $19 dollars an hour.

I'd like to know what he owners are making compared to the owners in 1981. Consumers create more jobs than investors or anyone else and reducing their income harms the nations as a whole.

there are a lot of things not in the article

but as to how the present owners are faring :evilg:

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=1450239

Key developments for Agri Star Meat & Poultry, LLC

Judge Orders Ex-Owners of Agri Star Meat & Poultry, LLC' Plant to Pay $2 Million

12/17/2010

A federal judge has ordered members of the family that owned Agri Star Meat & Poultry, LLC to pay more than $2 million after defaulting on financial agreements with one of their former banks, which has since collapsed. U.S. District Judge Edward McManus on entered a summary judgment in favor of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Value Recovery Group, L.P. and against brothers Sholom and Tzvi Rubashkin and their father, Aaron Rubashkin. The family owned the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Postville, which was the site of a 2008 raid in which 389 illegal immigrants were detained. The plant eventually filed for bankruptcy and was sold after the raid, which was the largest in U.S. history at the time. Sholom Rubashkin, the company's vice president, was later convicted on federal financial fraud charges, sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $27 million in restitution. Prosecutors said he intentionally deceived the company's lender and told employees to create fake invoices in order to showFirst Bank the plant had more money flowing in than it did. He has appealed his conviction. Omni National Bank sued the family last year after the Rubashkins stopped making payments on a $300,000 line of credit they received for a property rental company in Postville and on equipment they were renting from the bank. The equipment, including conveyor belts, labeling machines and computers, was used at the meatpacking plant. Federal regulators shut down Omni days after it filed the lawsuit, saying it had engaged in "unsafe and unsound practices" after making bad real estate loans. The FDIC was appointed Omni's receiver and continued the lawsuit. Value Recovery Group, based in Ohio, bought the debt Aaron Rubashkin owed on the leases and joined the case. Court records show the Rubashkins personally guaranteed the $300,000 line of credit for the rental company, Nevel Properties Corp., in 2007. McManus ruled the trio owes the FDIC nearly $290,000 for that loan plus interest. Nevel Properties rented out apartments and homes to many Agriprocessors employees. McManus also ordered Aaron Rubashkin, who was president of Agriprocessors, to pay Value Recovery Group nearly $1.8 million for the equipment leases, which was the amount owed after equipment was sold during bankruptcy proceedings, plus interest.

First Bank Wins $18.5 Million in Agri Star Meat & Poultry, LLC Fraud Case

06/23/2010

A former slaughterhouse executive in Iowa has been ordered to pay First Bank $18.5 million and serve a 27-year federal prison sentence for financial fraud. Sholom Rubashkin, a former vice president of Agri Star Meat & Poultry, LLC, was convicted of 86 financial fraud charges last year for leading a scheme that used fake financial documents to collect advances on a revolving loan. In 2008, First Bank Business Capital Inc. sued Agriprocessors, alleging the slaughterhouse defaulted on a $35 million loan. First Bank said in the lawsuit filed in federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that Agriprocessors overstated how much money it has available and that the meatpacking plant was unable or unwilling to meet its loan payments.

[Larry]

47 is the market wage that they went bankrupt and closed at....

Uh, no. That's more of your spin.

What the article says is:

In 1960, the company paid wages equal to $15.hour.

In 1981, a competing plant, four hours away, paid wages equal to $47 an hour.

In 1987, somebody bought the defunct plant. (No mention of when it closed.)

In 2008, ICE raided the place. They found that more than half of the employees were illegal. Many of them were minors.

Six months after the raid, the plant shut down. The owner was convicted of fraud, and sent to prison.

[twa]

Hygrade was purchased by Sholom Rubashkin

http://projectusa.org/library/postville/book_about_postville.php

[Larry]

Hygrade was purchased by Sholom Rubashkin

http://projectusa.org/library/postville/book_about_postville.php

1) And, therefore . . . ?

2) And I don't see anything in the three-paragraph book teaser you linked that says that.

[Destino]

It feels like I read a different article than others did based on the responses.

[Larry]

The article deals with a bunch of topics. I have no doubt that lots of people who read it will have certain parts that strike certain nerves of theirs.

[China]

In related news:

Alabama Can't Find Anyone to Fill Illegal Immigrants' Old Jobs

Alabama agriculture officials are stumped over how to keep farms operating now that the state's draconian new immigration law chased away all of the low paid (however illegal) labor.

...

Farmers have complained of a lack of field hands since parts of the law took effect in late September. Many have said legal residents aren't physically able or mentally tough enough to perform the work, and others won't do so because it doesn't pay enough.

Hall said the agriculture positions pay well above minimum wage, but many Americans find them too "physically taxing" to perform.

Click on the link for the full article