[Marxism] Warehouse Workers Quit in Immigration Inquiry By NINA BERNSTEIN - FYI

[Bonnie Weinstein <giobon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Warehouse Workers Quit in Immigration Inquiry
By NINA BERNSTEIN
December 13, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/13/nyregion/13fresh.html?ref=nyregion

Fresh Direct, the online grocery delivery operation that caters to affluent
and overworked New Yorkers, lost dozens of employees this week after federal
immigration officials notified the company that its employee records were
under investigation.

The company sent its workers a memo on Sunday and Monday saying that
Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to inspect the records of every
employee and asked them to update their information and provide documents,
like Social Security cards, to prove employment eligibility. At least 40
warehouse workers who could not produce proof that they were authorized to
work in the United States quit or were suspended.

At the company¹s warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, the work force,
largely immigrants, reacted with panic and distress as news of the inquiry
spread.

³Some people just walked out the door,² said Sandy Pope, president of a
Teamsters local that is one of two unions competing to organize the workers.
³They were sobbing, with garbage bags full of their clothes from their
lockers. They didn¹t feel they had any chance of fixing their paperwork, so
they just left.²

Fresh Direct officials said in a statement that they were trying to comply
with the government¹s request and keep their employees informed about the
investigation. But they would not discuss any suspensions or resignations.

The federal investigation, part of a national campaign aimed at employers
who hire illegal immigrants, comes in the midst the company¹s busiest season
and in the middle of a conflict over efforts to unionize some 900 Fresh
Direct warehouse workers. The workers are scheduled to vote on Dec. 22 and
23 on whether to affiliate with either Local 805 of the International
Brotherhood of Teamsters or Local 348 of the United Food and Commercial
Workers union, which recently organized Fresh Direct drivers.

Ms. Pope, the Teamsters¹ president, said on Wednesday that the suspensions
seemed to be an effort to thwart the union and that the company¹s lawyers
might have invited Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to
scrutinize workers to weaken the union drive.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said, ³I would
categorically deny that that¹s the case.²

Jim Moore, the company¹s senior vice president for business affairs, called
the claim outrageous.

³At this point, Fresh Direct is intent on two things,² he said in a written
statement. ³Complying with the requirements of federal law with respect to
the I.C.E. audit and ensuring that its employees know the facts and are
given the opportunity to participate² in the union vote. He said the company
had asked immigration officials to delay their audit until after the
holidays, but they refused.

Without confirming or denying the investigation, Ms. Nantel said such audits
were part of the agency¹s stepped-up enforcement.

With new financing, she said, the agency recently hired 41 ³forensic
auditors² to scrutinize employment eligibility verification forms, known as
I-9¹s, that companies are required to keep on file for every employee they
hire.

³Certainly an I-9 audit is one investigatory tool that we use,² Ms. Nantel
said. ³Depending on the results of the audit, we¹ll follow that
investigation to whatever next step is appropriate.²

Companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants can face fines or criminal
charges, but until recently, prosecutions were extremely rare. In some
workplaces elsewhere in the country, workers without proper documents were
summoned to the main office without warning, and taken away in handcuffs.

Union officials said that many Fresh Direct employees, who earn between
$7.50 and $9.75 an hour, were so frightened of being detained and separated
from their children that they stayed home on Wednesday. Others said they
were told not to come back.

Ms. Pope said that some employees were warned by company officials not to
show up for their paychecks. She said the union was scrambling to find
clergy members or other volunteers to collect paychecks for workers who
feared going back to the warehouse.

One 41-year-old woman from Ecuador, who spoke on the condition of anonymity
for fear of deportation, said she was let go with an expression of regret
when she told human resources workers at the company that the Social
Security number she had been using for nearly four years was false.

³I¹m really desperate now because I have no money to send to my kids,² she
said, referring to four children in Ecuador. ³I don¹t know what I¹m going to
do with my life.²


________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism