Agriprocessors: "We're On Course To "Take The High Road'"

Truth, Agriprocessors' style:

Guest column — Agriprocessors: We're taking the high road
BY CHAIM ABRAHAMS • AUGUST 26, 2008

Gov. Chet Culver in his Sunday op-ed essay urged Agriprocessors to "take the high road" and join the family of responsible businesses in Iowa. We believe that we are indeed on course to take the "high road."

Agriprocessors moved to Iowa two decades ago precisely because the company had a vision: to create a source of kosher meat that could supply the nation's growing demand for kosher foods with healthy, good-quality and reasonably priced meat. Agriprocessors chose to locate its plant in Iowa because of what the state had and continues to offer. Iowa offers honest, hard-working people - people who work for our company and people who supply the company with products and services.

With the grace of God, Agriprocessors flourished in the state of Iowa while benefiting the citizens of Iowa. It provided jobs to many hundreds of people and stimulated economic growth not only in Postville but throughout the state. Agriprocessors is very much a part of Iowa's dream, creating a value-added product from the great beef in Iowa for export nationwide.

Agriprocessors fully subscribes to the governor's call to begin to take the high road and join the family of responsible businesses in Iowa since it wholeheartedly believes that it is doing precisely that. In just the past few months, it has taken a number of important steps that certainly fulfill that challenge.

While the governor's first bill in office was to raise the minimum wage from $6.25 per hour to $7.25 an hour, Agriprocessors has raised its minimum starting wage from $7.25 per hour to $10 per hour (for workers with skills). The company has also instituted affordable and quality health care for all of its workers, another prime concern of the governor.

Agriprocessors regrets that some of its employees may have used fraudulent documents to lie about their age. Agriprocessors has been in contact with the Iowa Department of Labor ever since it raised the issue early this year. It repeatedly asked the department to advise it of underage workers who may have fraudulently presented documents to work at the plant. The department did its own audit in April and did not find any underage workers. The company policy is clear: "No one under 18 may be employed at the plant." When it did learn of several underage workers in the plant, they were immediately dismissed.

Agriprocessors hired Jim Martin, a former U.S. attorney in Missouri, as its new compliance officer to ensure that the company is in complete compliance with all federal and state regulations. It has implemented safety training sessions for all of its supervisors and for all of its workers. The company means it: Safety is its No. 1 concern. Everyone at Agriprocessors knows that, its officers, employees on the line and supervisors.

Agriprocessors hired a former Occupational Safety and Health Administration official to monitor its compliance with all federal and state safety requirements. Agriprocessors is a modern and safe place to work, as anyone who has visited the plant recently can plainly see. It has also hired an experienced staffing company to do its hiring, and it is voluntarily using the new federal e-Verify system.

The water-treatment problem that the governor raises was a problem years ago not only for the company's plant but also for another business as well. While the other company cut and ran, Agriprocessors stayed the course and invested heavily in a high-technology water-treatment plant that is a model of environmental friendliness and is the envy of companies across the country and, indeed, throughout the world. Ironically, Agriprocessors never received any credit for this bold action.

We are pleased to invite the governor to visit the plant, to meet with our leadership and to see the truth firsthand. In such a meeting, we would be delighted to hear the governor's suggestions as to how we can further improve to fulfill the governor's challenge to us. In addition to meeting with us, the governor should meet with members of our community, the mayor of Postville, with our happy employees and our supervisors and our compliance officers.

In the end, we are certain that the governor will see firsthand that our plant is anything but a "jungle," and, when all of the bitterness of the last few months is taken out of the equation, that we are indeed on course to being on an even "higher road."

CHAIM ABRAHAMS is plant manager at Agriprocessors. Contact: chaim@iowabestbeef.com

Let's recap:

1. No admission of wrongdoing.
2. No admission of laxness.
3. No apology.
4. Blames workers, even though federal agents found blank fake green cards in Agriprocessors' Human Resources Department.
5. Admits in a backhanded, perhaps accidental way that Agriprocessors is not yet fully in compliance with applicable law and sees nothing wrong with that.
6. Claims credit for EPA-related actions Agriprocessors was forced to take under law.
7. Does not address current Iowa OSHA citations and fines.
8. Claims to be paying for healthcare for all its workers while most new hires work for Jacobson Staffing and OneForce Staffing, not for Agriprocessors.

[Hat Tip: BC.]

Comments

[sage]

It's absolutely incredible how well Agri is digging it's own grave.

All of these half truths and lies by Agri folks and their paid supporters can and will be used in a court of law.

[Archie Bunker]

http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/lochlomond.htm

This is an ancient Scot niggun that one of the cartoon networks applied to The Lone Ranger.

I can just picture Sholom & Getzel Rubashkin dressed up like the Lone Ranger & Tonto.

Maybe Yochanan can do a parody of this:

By yon bonnie banks,
And by yon bonnie braes,
Where the sun shines bright on Loch Lomond,
Where me and my true love
Were ever want to gae,
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

'Twas then that we parted
In yon shady glen,
On the steep, steep side of Ben Lomond,
Where in purple hue
The Highland hills we view,
And the moon coming out in the gloaming.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

The wee birdie sang
And the wild flowers spring,
And in sunshine the waters are sleeping,
But the broken heart it kens
Nae second Spring again,
Tho' the waeful may cease frae their greeting.

Oh! ye'll take the high road and
I'll take the low road,
And I'll be in Scotland afore ye;
But me and my true love
Will never meet again
On the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.

[steve]

We believe that we are indeed on course to take the "high road."

In the meantime, we are still lowlives.

[Rachel Batya]

With the grace of G-d they've prospered? Now it's G-d who has allowed this chillul hashem to happen?

Our happy employees? The ones who have lost parts of their hands in the machinery?

If I didn't know better, I'd think this was a brilliant parody of an Agri press release.

[Archie Bunker]

I don't know that an Israeli like Chaim Abrahams has such a superb command of English.

Is it not the policy of the Des Moines Register to credit ghostwriters like Lubinsky & 5W?

[shmuel]

I'm sure he didn't write it. Prepared by Getzel, mistama, and submitted under Abrahams' name.

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-obama-agriprocess,0,4160039.story

If Barack Hussein "Blue Gums" Obama gets cornered with Nat Lewin's response, I don't think the waffler will hold his ground.

[Archie Bunker]

What makes you think that Getzel was the original mechaber of everything he posted on the blogs? Some of the stuff had Lewin written all over it.

[The Other DK]

You missed one:

...Agriprocessors has raised its minimum starting wage from $7.25 per hour to $10 per hour (for workers with skills).

$10 per hour is ONLY for "workers with skills" (whatever that means).

[Archie Bunker]

"ONLY for "workers with skills" (whatever that means)"

Rubashkin is a disciple of Bill Clinton on "the meaning of 'is'"

[craig]

the fact that agri is out blasting against obama so fast and even using lewin's name as opposed to a PR flak, shows you how scared they are and are in the fight for their lives. All hands are on deck to make sure that the rubashkins don't go to jail, and keep the company open in the name of the rubashkin's, and keep the rubashkin empire still in good graces of the kosher certifiers, because if rubashkin loses their hecksher, they will lose it in south america as well, and even if they lose their us operation because of the justice department, they still need the OU or someone "reputable" in the kosher world to keep their global empire in business.

This is no longer about the Postville operation, this is about everything. Its going to get really nasty, they will pull out all the stops. Get ready for a big battle.

The child labor is the killer charge, because no reputable Attorney General will let something like that slide, because it provides with excellent copy and propaganda for reelection. Its too good a case, to let someone take a plea with no criminal repercussions.

Nat Lewin may sound upset, he's a good lawyer, and he's really very happy happy. He is getting his retainer up front, and is making a pretty penny off of Agri. At least we know someone is getting paid.

[Archie Bunker]

If Lewin is smart, he'll ask for a larger retainer, considering he has to issue public responses on a weekly basis now.

[State of Postville III]

Agi knew who was employed. The surrounding area knew. The other plant did not "cut and run" the company burned to the ground. Guess who bought the land??Surprise, surprise--Agri did. They moved to Iowa because of the great workers here--that's why 400 illegals were working, right? Give us all a break--we know them all too well. Words, words, and will go back to the criminal ways of doing business.

[State of Postville III]

Jacobson Agency is notorious. Workers have no money from their paycheck after "deductions." Two weeks in a row no money. One has to eat and live. People arrived here without anything because of the lies--there is a movie theatre, Walmart and beautiful places to live, right--believe that and you can buy a bridge over the Sahara Desert!!

[sage]

The only road Agriprocessors is on is the road to prison.

If the timing is right, they'll arrive there between Rosh Hashanna and Yom Kippur.

[state of the Jews]

Isn't this the same piece I saw on Vos Iz Nieas as a press release from Lubinsky?

On VIN there was no signature indicating it was written by Chiam Abrahams. It appeared as "News Source: Menachem Lubinsky spokesman for Agriprocessors"

Sure looks like identity theft to me.

[isabel]

Hard working people in Iowa weren't offered a job, and it wasn't 400 illegal workers with stolen idenities, it was over 850. The rest ran when ICE arrived,some have returned and still are in the area,drawing free food and housing off the local citizens.They will get their jobs back with a cash only payment.

[State of Postville 2]

Isabel - I think you're a little unclear on the status of those left behind after the raid at Agri on May 12th. None of the people who left have returned. Let me repaeat, NONE have returned to the area.

The ones who are left do not want to be here. They are forced into staying here by the government; the same government who will not allow them to seek work or get another job. They do not want to "draw free food and housing off the local citizens". They have no choice but to rely on the generosity of those kind enough to help and assist them - and they deplore being in that situation. They would rather work and support themselves and their families on their own.

The assinine statement about getting their jobs back is to ridiculous to address.

I suggest you have home checked for nitrous oxide leaks.

[State of Postville 2]

Let's define the "high road" Agri is taking:

Consistently short as many paychecks as you can possibly get away with by three to eight hours a week -

Hold back the Rabbi's paychecks until they become frustrated enough to stop working during full production -

Continue to claim that everything is fine now and deny through all possible means that anything ever was wrong...if it was, blame it on someone else -

Continue to contract unscrupulous labor supply companies who make exorbitant amounts of money in the form of rental and bank card charges from the people they have brought here to work under the guise of "getting a new start" -

Rely on those same crooked labor supply companies to bring even more people (preferably from far enough away from Postville so as they've likely not heard the truth about Agri) through their revolving doors to replace the many who leave every day -

Spend copious amounts of cash buying trips for "inspectors" who announce the plant is a wonderful, "I'd work there myself" kind of place and spend even more trying to spin your way out of negative publicity and spend even more trying to silence your critics -

Don't use a dime of the aforementioned expenditures to make your employees' benefits package affordable for you average employee -

Use every means possible to convince the world the Governor, presidential candidates, OSHA, the state of Iowa, the federal government, just about every newspaper in the country, radio, television and any other person or agency who has ever leveled a charge, allegation, accusation or simple criticism in your direction that you are innocent of everything and all these people and agencies have gotten together and wrongly conspired against you -

Continue to convince yourself you are operating within the parameters of the faith you profess.

[sage]

State of Postville 2,

WOW !!!!

If Judge Judy was presiding and had a summary list like this to work with, the defendants would be torn limb from limb before any of them would have a chance to utter a single word.

[isabel]

sorry postville 2 that I stepped on your toes,you misunderstand what I said,I know those caught in the raid didn't come back,only the ones that hid or ran away and weren't caught.ICE missed 70% of Agri's workers.A lot of them moved to other jobs in the area or are living with someone who is hiding them.

[State of Postville 2]

Isabel - I think I see what you are gettig at, but most of them are truly gone from the area. They may be one or two of them "hiding out", but I doubt it. There is nothing her for them. Why stay?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Archie: I previously did a parody of "Loch Lomond" about a month ago, in a similar context.