Progress Illinois

Before federal authorities launched a military-style raid last spring on the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, IA —rounding up and trying hundreds of undocumented immigrants for simply going to work—the Chicago-based Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) knew that trouble was brewing.

Reports had surfaced that the management at Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking company, was condoning exploitative labor practices as their largely Guatemalan-born workforce struggled to subsist on poverty pay and garnished wages. JCUA and its allies from the Jewish community and beyond knew they had to take a stand.

“Then the raid happened,” JCUA’s executive director Jane Ramsey tells us. “And a light was shed on Agriprocessors and the depth of the abuse was beyond our comprehension.”

I sat down with Ramsey to learn about her experiences in helping the people of Postville put their lives back together.

AC: When you visited Postville in the aftermath of the raid, what was left?

JR: A disaster. You had women with [tether] bracelets on their legs to make sure the government knows where they are… And a lot of frightened immigrants. There was this vulnerability among workers who came to Postville to make their lives better … and here they were afraid to come to come to St. Bridget [a local church] for help. There was a real need for food and housing.

AC: You managed to confront Agriprocessors executives on behalf of the workers and others who were outraged by the company’s practices on July 27. Tell me about the meeting and what came out of it?

JR: They came reluctantly. But they came. They knew that the eyes of the Jewish community were on them and they could not ignore us. [...]

We met in a library, right near the church, in a little tiny room. Clearly there was a lot of emotion. We had a couple of demands. One, that they provide back pay. We wanted them to make a gift of $100,000 to the humanitarian relief, which was a modest sum. And we wanted transparency. [...]

They said, as of that day, they sent out the checks, all of the back wages … I was convinced that they cut the checks until we found out later [that] no one received them.

AC: That same day you organized a demonstration of 1,500 people who marched through town to the Agriprocessors plant. What did you see as you made your way through town?

JR: We passed a playground that the town had built for the children. But there were no children … They were building a community that was no longer there.

AC: You revisited Postville again last week around the Thanksgiving holiday. Agriprocessors has closed since you were last there. Many of the workers are now gone. Why do you keep going back?

JR: We’re not going to go away. We’re going to see Postville through as a new plant gets running up to the standards we think are required: with safety, good wages, and benefits.

AC: What can the nation learn from what the people of Postville experienced over the past six months?

JR: Everybody lost and nobody won. The raid was just hurtful. And for what?

AC: You say that reforming the nation’s immigration policies as the solution or the next step. What should people take from this period, and Postville in particular, as they propose reforms?

JR: The inhumanity of what people have had to go through. I heard of a woman who spent five days in the trunk of a car getting there. Just to work.

The current immigration system puts a high value on legal entry for white collar professionals. They don’t have to go through these dangerous hoops. For blue collar workers, they have to face danger. That’s got to change.

Agriprocessors’ former CEO Sholom Rubashkin and a team of managers were indicted by a grand jury last month for overseeing the hiring and abuse of the undocumented workers. Rubashkin also faces bank fraud charges and is currently in prison.

After being shuttered for weeks, partial production at the plant resumed yesterday.