Immigrants Find Actions Have Consequences

by Big Dog on Apr 12, 2006 at 08:11 Immigration

A meat packing plant in Detroit, Wolverine Packing Co, became a company the Big Dog admires when it fired 15 immigrant women who skipped work to attend a protest. The women were informed prior to the event that attendance at work on the day of the protest was mandatory and that if they failed to show for work they would lose their jobs. They decided to go to the protest and now they are in the same circumstances they were when they came here; looking for a job. I guess they found out another lesson of working in America, listen to the boss or you will get fired.

Interestingly, the workers are fighting to get their jobs back even though at least one of them is undocumented. Elena Herrada, a Detroit activist, is fighting to get the women’s jobs back stating that if the women knew they would be fired they would never have skipped work. The company claims to have informed them verbally and in writing. Seems a better grasp of English might have been helpful in this situation.

The meat packing plant uses an employment company and that company is supposed to verify worker status but evidently that company did not do such a good job of it since one of them, who asked that her last name not be used (so that she could further evade the law and continue breaking it). Now is a great time for the federal government to make examples of people. They should step in and shut down Minuteman Staffing. The feds can show up at the start of the workday and round up all the workers. They can go through the records and they can deport anyone who is here illegally. In addition, Minuteman can be fined a great deal of money for illegal practices.

“It was not fair,'” said Mercedes, a 31-year-old Detroit woman who attended the rally and was fired. “We went to fight for our rights.” Mercedes is undocumented and asked that her last name not be used.

Mercedes, if that really is your name, you have no rights. You are here ILLEGALLY and you have no rights what so ever. Let me make it clear for you so there is no misunderstanding due to language: usted no tiene ningunos derechos. I hope that clears it up for you. You also need to know that actions have consequences. The US government might allow you in with a wink and a nod but that does not mean you can ignore the rules of the company you work for. Just because you disregarded the law to get here does not mean you can spend your life here continuing to break rules. So, from you former employer, ADIOS.

I commend this company for taking these steps. Perhaps more companies in this country should take similar courses of action. That would help with the ILLEGAL immigration problem without waiting for the sloths in Congress. It also seems to me that these employment services are brokerages for illegals. They provide a shield for companies who can say “we did not hire them so we do not check them, the temp service does.” Maybe immigration reform needs to include better control over these kinds of companies.
One might also wonder why unions are not more involved given the economic circumstances of that area one would think unions would not want ILLEGALS taking jobs citizens could be filling.

Source: Detroit Free Press

[tags]Wolverine Packing Co, illegal immigrants, dismissal, protests, immigration reform, union workers[/tags]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 at 08:11 and is filed under Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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