Media Coverage of Postville: Agriprocessors

Through archiving articles about Postville, I have found out a lot about Agriprocessors, the plant where the raid happened in May.  One thing that I thought was surprising was that the plant was able to replace many of the arrested workers shortly after the raid.  During the past summer, many Somali immigrants came to the plant to replace the Mexican and Guatemalan ones.  It is shocking that Agriprocessors was able to go as long as it did without any repercussions.  It was also disturbing to discover the violations that Agriprocessors has been charged with since the raid.  Agriprocessors did not allow their employees to unionize because they said that the votes of illegal immigrants in favor of unionizing did not count, which is against the law.  23 employees also claimed that they had not been payed overtime for the time it took them to set up before and clean up after shifts.  Agriprocessors is also facing charges of child labor.  I am pretty sure that these allegations are correct, as well, because I know a teenage boy who was working there.  There have also been accusations of sexual harrassment.  According to an article in the New York Times, one man said that they didn't give workers breaks when they were working and he often worked 17 hour days.  When the workers complained about the harsh conditions, the people in charge told them that they would call immigration if they complained.  Agriprocessors has also been accused of many safety violations.  It was shocking to find out how much power employers have when they can threaten to report their employees to immigration and how this power can be abused.