TJ Maxx, work force under fire (worried about illegal immigrants)
Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, PA) ^ | 8/19/03 | MARK SCARAMASTRO and MICHAEL McNARNEY
More than 40 township residents, many applauding speakers critical of what they believe is a largely Hispanic work force at the new TJ Maxx warehouse, jammed Monday night's meeting of the township supervisors. Police Chief Stephen Rinaldi - out of uniform but sitting at the supervisors table - told residents and township officials not to talk about the topic.
"Don't bring the immigrants up," Rinaldi told Tom Szumski of Boston Street, who had signed up at the start of the meeting to talk about TJ Maxx.
"Why not?" a lady in the back row shot back.
"I can't divulge the information," Rinaldi said. "It's being taken care of." Rinaldi offered to tell the lady in secret, after the meeting, what was happening.
But that didn't stop Szumski, Supervisor Anthony Attardo and others from speaking out.
Szumski was concerned that illegal aliens were working at the warehouse, in the Grimes Industrial Park, and asked supervisors to call the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service to make sure workers were in the country legally.
Szumski said he owned a contracting business in California for years but was put out of business by competition hiring illegal aliens as cheap labor. He doesn't want to see the area "overrun" by illegal immigrants, he said.
"They're not going to be paying any taxes, and they're going to be getting everything for free," Szumski said. "Where do you think they are coming from, Minnesota?"
Attardo proposed a resolution endorsing strict enforcement of immigration laws in the township, but it was not acted upon. He also wants Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Philadelphia, and U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pittsburgh, to help open an INS office in the Wilkes-Barre area.
The 1-million-square-foot TJ Maxx warehouse employs about 500 and is in a Keystone Opportunity Zone that exempts the company from most taxes. All the township sees from the operation, Attardo said, is $5 per year, per employee, or about $2,500.
"We made a big mistake when we zoned the property KOZ," Attardo said.
Attardo said that when a Scranton lawyer representing TJ Maxx approached the supervisors two years ago, the township was promised that TJ Maxx would hire local people and pay them $8 to $10 an hour for general labor and $14 to $16 an hour for supervisors. There was also to be a 50-cent raise after six months and full medical benefits after 90 days.
TJ Maxx pays $6.50 an hour and almost no local residents work there, Attardo said.
"We were lied to," Attardo said.