Posted on 09/07/2012 9:52:25 AM PDT by SmithL
His rags-to-riches immigrant journey and good business sense crowned Juvenal Chavez the king of Latino supermarkets in the Bay Area, but now the CEO is fighting a harsh attack on the reputation of his 21-store Mi Pueblo Foods grocery chain.
Mi Pueblo stunned some of its more than 3,000 employees last month when it told them it had joined E-Verify, a Department of Homeland Security program that screens the immigration status of new hires.
Now, with union activists accusing Chavez of betraying his own undocumented immigrant roots and threatening a consumer boycott if he doesn't pull out of E-Verify by October, the entrepreneur is fighting back in a war of words against the union and political opposition.
A protest outside the chain's San Jose headquarters on Thursday was "part of an ongoing campaign against Mi Pueblo (to) damage our good name," said spokeswoman Perla Rodriguez, who accused labor unions of an underhanded campaign to distort the company's record of advocacy for the Bay Area's Latino community.
Lauded by city leaders around the Bay Area for buying up vacant or rundown big-box supermarkets and transforming them into colorful, festive Latin American food markets, Chavez is now confronting one of his biggest public-relations challenges since he founded the company in 1991 on San Jose's Eastside.
Among Mi Pueblo's most prominent critics is Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese, who said in December that armed security guards escorted him from a San Jose store when he paid a visit after hearing complaints about work conditions. The company had said the visit by Cortese, a likely 2014 candidate for mayor of San Jose, was a union-organized "media stunt."
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Yeah, the very thought of exposing and not hiring illegals -— hey, that might risk more Hispanic votes for Obama — can’t have that.
Heh heh.
I love it when a liberal Catch-22 falls into play.
ping
“Mi Pueblo stunned some of its more than 3,000 employees last month when it told them it had joined E-Verify, a Department of Homeland Security program that screens the immigration status of new hires.”
Stunned?
Well you did go through the legal immigration process, didn’t you? Nothing to worry about, right?
No Catch 22 here. Aliens are welcome to work, just not to succeed.
Lib on Lib = Do Not Care..................
He probably has a stacked on no match SS witholding letters on his desk and is worried about a visit by the ICE.
Also welcomed - no make that EXPECTED to unionize. And so when an illegal like Chavez becomes successful and is faced with Big Unions AND E-Verify????
Freaking hilarious.
Now if they could use e-verify on their customers . . . Nah, they would lose too much business.
Send FReepmail if you want on/off SVP list | |
The List of Ping Lists |
We have a few new markets in the area that used to be a Lucky’s or Savemart, they’re turning into Hispanic and
Asian markets. Glad to see Mi Pueblo getting jiggy with it. I may have to find a local store just to say Thanks!
Illegal crybaby Julio ping!!
Cry me a river vato!
Proving that unions and other leftists care more about their open borders agenda and cheap labor than they do about Hispanics.
There is tremendous pressure — including by elected officials who are bound to support the law — not only in the border states but throughout the country to look the other way when it comes to accomodating illegal Mexicans.
Without a doubt!
Well, I guess he figured out that his Lamborghini lifestyle had some risk associate with it, if he continued to hire people who clearly were here illegally.
I speak Spanish and some dialects are damn difficult for me until we get on the same page.
But, most annoying is when they speak absolutely no English and we can’t bridge differences between our languages on those days I’m a little slow.
It can’t be that two or three of them, in a row, don’t speak any English and I have to go find someone who does or I just order what I am looking and end up with far more than I intended or something I could have never wanted.
I like Mi Pueblo but sometimes just avoid them and go to Arteagas to get what I want.
Some of their employees know me and give me a chance to speak my crappy Spanish and they are fluent in English because they are Americans.
Don’t you ever sleep?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.