Union charges (Fourth Amendment) rights violated in ID raids on plants

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Omaha World Herald

BY RICK RUGGLES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

A union representing meatpackers warned the federal government Thursday in Omaha that it will fight back over what it considers misconduct and constitutional violations in the December 2006 raids on six packing plants.


Orlando Nuñez, who works in the raided Grand Island, Neb., plant, said he was asked repeatedly to show proof of citizenship and considers that harassment.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union described federal immigration agents' conduct as bullying, unprofessional and in violation of the Fourth Amendment. That amendment protects citizens against unreasonable search and seizure.

The Omaha conference was the union's first national meeting in response to the raids, conducted by immigration agents checking citizenship status. One of the raids occurred at a Grand Island, Neb., plant.

Omaha Together One Community and A Mid-Iowa Organizing Strategy also participated in the meeting, designed in part to collect witness accounts.


Read more: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10109399

[proud2bamerican2]

1. let's hope...

Other major employers get the message that depressing wages for Americans by hiring illegal aliens will not be tolerated. It took us 25 years to get into the mess we're in and will take another generation to get out of it, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

[badgervan]

2. Huh?

Asking to show proof of citizenship is "harassment"?

[maxrandb]

4. So you support a Federal Law Enforcement Agent

coming into your workcenter and saying; "Show me your papers"???

What has become of our country?

[RantinRavin]

3. Curious

How does one show proof of citizenship upon demand ?

[Igel]

7. In some states you could show your driver's license.

Or other state ID. Not in all states, but when I got my license years ago a birth certificate (or comparable ID) was required. It's not always proof, and I think some states have loosened the requirements.

[fasttense]

5. Ah, don't worry about those poor corporations.

If they can't hire illegals they will just close the plants and move them to India. They will get their cheap, cheap labor one way or another.

[clixtox]

6. The book, "Fast Food Nation" by Eric Schlosser...

Includes a damning indictment of the meat packing industry and their inhumane treatment and exploitation of the workers, especially of the workers health. The industry has been able to "get away" with their behavior because OSHA has been gutted by compliant politicians. What were once skilled, good paying jobs are now suitable for often illiterate, undocumented immigrants. the process has been streamlined and broken down so that a person does the same simple repetitious task over and over again. The worker turnover is amazing, the average worker in these plants only lasts a few months, by design! It is cheaper to hire another employee for the McJob than to have to give vacations and other benefits due to employees after they have been employed for 6 months or a year on the job.

Upton Sinclair wrote about the meat-packing industry in Chicago in 1906, "The Jungle", and laws were quickly passed to protect workers, but those reforms have been abandoned in the greedy pursuit of increasing profits. The industry now consists of just a few mega-corporations who could not possibly care less about labor issues.

Profits steadily increasing at any cost is the only issue that matters.