Posted on 12/19/2006 3:41:55 PM PST by atomic_dog
A spokesman for Swift & Co. says a lawsuit filed recently by eighteen former Swift & Co. employees is "completely without merit." The $23-million lawsuit alleges that the meat packing company conspired to manipulate and depress the labor market and wages by hiring illegal immigrants.
The lawsuit, filed late Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges that defendants including Swift and its owners, HM Capital Partners LLC in Dallas -- formerly Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst -- engaged in an "enterprise that grossly affected commerce through a pattern of racketeering activity" in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act.
Federal immigration officers on Dec. 12 raided six Swift production facilities in six states, arresting nearly 1,300 employees. Each of the plaintiffs were employed at the Swift facility in Cactus, Texas, located north of Amarillo. A total of 295 people were arrested on immigration violations or other criminal charges in the raid of the Cactus facility, according to a news release issued by Heygood, Orr, Reyes & Bartolomei law firm in Dallas, which is representing the plaintiffs.
The lawsuit alleges that Swift executives "actively sought to locate these illegal immigrants and hire them -- knowing full well that it was in violation of the immigration laws of the United States to do so." The lawsuit also accuses the company of transporting, smuggling, harboring and concealing illegal immigrants.
A spokesman for HM Capital Partners also said the company believes the lawsuit is completely without merit.
I don't see how they can lose this lawsuit. Wages have gone down and Illegals have been arrested.
I hope these folks win the suit, that any number of executives (even one) go to jail for at least 3 years under the RICO statute and that fear of further multimillion dollar payouts and hard time causes executives to make visits to their plants to fire those hiring illegal aliens. The labor market for "guest workers" will dry up over night which will make a huge dent in the number of illegal aliens running down, shooting, raping, and murdering U.S. citizens.
A civil lawsuit will see no executive go to jail and there will never be any criminal charges filed.
It will wash out this way: Companies that hire immigrants from Bush's guest worker program will be exempt from prior lawsuits involving the hiring of illegal workers.
Understatement of the decade. The company is shamelessly gulty on all counts.
99.9% of Americans dont know that.
99.9% of Americans also dont know that an audit by the IRS is a civil action and that is why they can do what they do during that audit. It only becomes criminal when they bring a charge of criminal sorts.
Well if I was on the jury, HM capital Partners would be sucking wind when the case was over. Truth is they'll try everything to settle out of court. The flood gate is open on swift, these cases will grow like flies. A young attorney could hit gold, on the scale of the tobacco settlements.
I think you've forgot the little fact that the trial attorney's own the democrate party.
No, actually I do not know. Illegals are the crack cocaine of labor intensive business in America and, as with many addictions, withdrawal can be painful and even dangerous.
Interesting handle, you must be one of the few left. I bailed out in 2002.
Who has more money to donate to the Democrats. Attorneys or the corporations that hire them?
Amen.
Update: Local 4 p.m. Fox affiliate newscast just had 2 of the plaintiffs on live from their newsroom. The interview ended by the anchor asking them if they had anything else to say and do they think they will win. "We will win," one said, "We want justice," the other said. When the anchor asked what they considered to be justice, the two plaintiffs responded that justice would be illegal workers being fired and no more illegal workers being allowed in to this country. These were two hispanic, working-class women saying this.
Is anybody listening?
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