Posted on 04/22/2006 11:06:00 AM PDT by radar101
When Peter Smith, a senior immigration enforcement agent in upstate New York, led the raid on a cavernous IFCO Systems wood products plant just outside of Albany this week, he was taken aback by what he saw.
"There was a lot of drilling, cutting, dismantling of old pallets, pneumatic nail guns, power saws. Most of these guys were working in jeans, tennis shoes, short-sleeve shirts; some had sawdust in their hair," he said. "No legal facility would let workers work in those conditions."
The plant, which opened in 2004, specializes in pallet retrieval and recycling, and has listed Target Corp. and Best Buy Co. as among its customers.
The investigation began with an insider's tip: IFCO workers at the Guilderland plant were seen tearing up their W-2 tax forms, and a company manager explained that they were illegal immigrants and would not be paying taxes.
A day later, immigration officials got a tip that IFCO managers were arranging for illegal immigrants to be transported from Texas to the New York plant.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
>>Most of these guys were working in jeans, tennis shoes, short-sleeve shirts; some had sawdust in their hair,"<<
Oh Dear!
>>federal investigators put together a picture of how IFCO managers allegedly bent, broke and ignored the rules.<
Imagine what they would find if they looked at the White House. Violations too numerous to list.
Why hire illegals to do this work? If illegals can work under these conditions we can get children to do the work for even less.
Politics.
In other words, they were not following OSHA rules for workplace safety. But I guess following basic safety rules is too much for you, regardless of whether or not it's illegals that's involved.
Well. there's a coincidence. My 12 year old is looking to do light housework and yard work for extra spending cash. Yeserday, I told her to put on her flyers that she is cheaper than illegals and she speaks English.
Sounds like EVERY building construction site I have ever been too.
"Why hire illegals to do this work? If illegals can work under these conditions we can get children to do the work for even less."
Boy, is that a great point. With the illegals making all workplace laws moot, why not employ children? Even better, illegal slave children! ! !
IFCO would have had to supply these men with hardhats and workboots, not something they would choose to do.
Have you ever worked on a ranch? Strung a barbed wire fence on rough ground? Tennis shoes, jeans, t-shirts and gloves are the common attire for the working owners.
Well, the short sleeve shirts are probably against the OSHA rules, but are also probably fairly common. The tennis shoes OTOH, are stupid in such an environment, but also arean't unheard of in perfectly legal facilities. Jeans are plenty of protection (practically speaking), and I defy anyone to work in such an environment,legal or illegal, *without* getting sawdust in their hair.
No mention is made of probably the most important safety item for such work, eye protection.
FWIW, I worked in a plant that made wood windows and doors, in the lumber mill part of the operation. I wore a T shirt, jeans and leather, but non steel toed, shoes. No eye protection, no hard hard, nada. That was the summer of '68. We had a few injured workers, as a result of their extracurricular, and quite drunken activities while off work.
I work in jeans and sometimes T shirts and sneakers. In the summer I may even wear short at work. BTW I work in a high tech product development group. As for having sawdust in my hair.... if I only had hair....
Has the world lost it's sense of perspective and proportion?
Bush's low poll numbers is the reason for this raid, IMO.
This W-2 earnings info submitted by the company has piled up year-after-year in the SSA's Earnings Suspense File of unmatched SSN data.
This company is not alone. There are tens of thousands of companies submitting W-2 earnings data with millions of unmatched SSNs.
It's lying politician pukes' B.S. that Washington doesn't know who they are.
We don't need shiny new high-tech SSN cards that go PING!
WE NEED ENFORCEMENT!
Can I propose the next raid be on Tyson Foods?
...One result was the filing of criminal charges against seven IFCO managers including Robert Belvin, James Rice and Dario Salzano of the Guilderland facility; Abelino Chicas, an assistant general manager in Houston; and Michael Ames, a general manager at a Boston-area plant. The company says it has placed the managers on temporary leave.
These guys consider themselves Americans?
You can't tell me that upper management didn't know what was going on. One walk through one plant would tell you the story.
Also, you'll hear how hard working these people are. What they actually mean is that they work for peanuts and don't complain.
Not precisely correct. They would not be filing tax returns. You think the government gives the money withheld from their paychecks back to the company if an employee doesn't file a return? Heck given that their pay was low, they probably would have gotten most or all of it back, perhaps even more under the earned income tax credit.
Pardon my cynicism, but I wonder if this raid wasn't the result of IFCO Systems not contributing $$$'s into some pol's coffers.
Before anyone decides to flame me, think Tyson. Then think Bill Gates, and heaven knows who else the goverment has leaned on!
Freakin' great idea! We can import Chinese kids to do it and we'd be culturally sensitive to their traditions.
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.