Mi Pueblo supermarket chain chief criticized for using E-Verify

San Jose Mercury News ^ | 9/6/12 | Matt O'Brien

[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."

[EagleUSA]

Yeah, the very thought of exposing and not hiring illegals -— hey, that might risk more Hispanic votes for Obama — can’t have that.

[Responsibility2nd]

Heh heh.

I love it when a liberal Catch-22 falls into play.

[null and void]

ping

[VanDeKoik]

“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?

[HiJinx]

Ping!

Click the keyword Aliens to see more illegal alien, border security, and other related threads.

[null and void]

No Catch 22 here. Aliens are welcome to work, just not to succeed.

[Red Badger]

Lib on Lib = Do Not Care..................

[Oldexpat]

He probably has a stacked on no match SS witholding letters on his desk and is worried about a visit by the ICE.

[Responsibility2nd]

Aliens are welcome to work, just not to succeed

 

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.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Thanks for posting this. I haven't heard anything about the issue. I was just at the Springfield branch of Mi Pueblo yesterday for a few items. If the UGW decides to picket here I will make a point of going to the store every day.

Now if they could use e-verify on their customers . . . Nah, they would lose too much business.

[martin_fierro]

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[JoanneSD]

I like these Mexican American super markets here in my area. their prices are great, produce is terrific, and I have had no complaints on their meats, that are priced good, the stores are well maintained, clean and employees are helpful, the courtesy clerks are super, and the check out personnel are not busy talking about their personal life with the cashier next to them..instead of focusing on my order.

[NormsRevenge]

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!

[9422WMR]

Illegal crybaby Julio ping!!
Cry me a river vato!

[TigersEye]

Proving that unions and other leftists care more about their open borders agenda and cheap labor than they do about Hispanics.

[glennaro]

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.

[TigersEye]

Without a doubt!

[Vendome]

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.

[null and void]

Don’t you ever sleep?

[Vendome]

I had been asleep since 2pm and woke an hour.

I hate this crap. I stopped icing yesterday, not a good idea.

I have been in incredible pain since and need to start again in the morning.

The guy I have working with me is asleep and I don’t have the heart to wake him up to help or do it myself. He is sleeping in the living room and if I go in the kitchen I’ll definitely wake him up and just don’t want to.

Trying to watch some crap English movie, where every last one of them has an English accent but, Emily Blunt is sexy so I’m watching...sort of.

movie sucks as English humor goes and Emily isn’t in one of her sexy thingy outfits or whatever.

Still, my oldest dog wants to hangout so I let him out of the living room to be with me.

I’ll have to let him go back in a while.

My shoulder is absolutely killing after PT yesterday. They kept asking me to do some count of maybe 20 but they were having fun flirting with some cop and just kept going, not keeping count.

They kept turning around and asking me if I had twenty and I told them I was pretty sure I had passed that minutes but would keep going til they said stop anyway.

Cop guy had been watching while they playing with and said something like “He doesn’t strike as someone who just stop at some number. You might need to manage him”.

To which I replied “Naw, I’m good. The like you and I will just keep going til they tell me to do something next. I am just trying to get to whatever next is because when I am ready my 1st goal is the top of Mt Ranier and the next will be heli Boarding in Chile this time next year”.

Sohhhhhh, I have been tired since Thursday and it hit me hard this morning. Hence I am now up at 3am........great, huh?

I’ll be fine. Can’t last much longer.

Time to put the little baby back to bed.

Later tater.

[null and void]

Hang in there. You know my number, and really, it’s not that far.

[Betis70]

I hope Ranch 99 takes notice and does the same thing. In both places I’ve gotten the stink eye since I look more like my Irish dad than my Mexican mom, but I didn’t really care. Good food and different ingredients I needed to make ethnic dishes were hard to find in the local Safeway or Albertsons. With my Chinese sis-in-law at the Ranch, my brother and I would act like Moses and part the sea of customers in front of her. They were (mostly) pretty short and only came up to our shoulders at most. There is also something about the FOB community that doesn’t react to anything but sheer power. “Get outta the way runtling.” Many had the manners of goat herders, which is probably not far from the truth in many cases.