Iowa Governor: Prosecute Agriprocessors Now

In an op-ed published in today's Des Moines Register, Iowa's governor Chet Culver calls on his attorney general to prosecute Agriprocessors "promptly."

But is there a catch?

I think so. Here's why.

Both Culver and his lieutenant governor, Patty Judge, have taken campaign contributions from Agriprocessors' owners, the Rubashkin family.

Judge in particular took large donations from the Rubashkins while she was Iowa's Secretary of Agriculture, during the PETA scandal and at a time she was supposed to be enforcing Iowa law. After a staged tour of Agriprocessors – the slaughter line ran just for her – she made a statement much like the statement made almost four years later by the Orthodox rabbis who 'cleared' Agriprocessors.

The governor's op-ed reads like a campaign speech and the outrage it tries to project seems to me forced and insincere.

And, Culver writes:

The lieutenant governor and I, in the strongest terms, call on the attorney general promptly to prosecute all alleged criminal and civil-law violations that are backed by sufficient evidence.

No attorney general should need direction on how to press charges, and I doubt this one does– especially when the evidence is so compelling and overwhelming.

The governor's column could be read as an attempt to cover for himself and Judge in the event – perhaps already agreed on –charges are not pressed.

On the other hand, Judge wants to be governor one day and Culver would like to keep his office.

Even though agriculture is to Iowa what oil is to Texas – perhaps even more so – there is only so much horrific news Iowans can take. If the fix is in, like it clearly was during the PETA scandal, the backlash against Culver and Judge would be significant.

Iowans now know too much about Agriprocessors and the Rubashkins to remain silent. The same can be said about the nation as a whole.

Below is Culver's article in its entirety:

Guest column: Governor — Agriprocessors must operate responsibly
CHET CULVER IS GOVERNOR OF IOWA

As governor, I have worked to attract and to grow businesses large and small throughout Iowa. By taking what might be called the "high road" to economic development, we are showing that investment in Iowa's work force is a good value to Iowa taxpayers, and we are creating good-paying jobs as a result.

So, I'm proud to say Iowa's business climate is strong, and it's getting stronger. Make no mistake, as long as I have the honor of serving as governor, I will continue to work every day to bring good jobs to Iowa.

Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and I are committed to supporting businesses that play by the rules. They are an essential part of our future economic growth. Which is why I am very concerned about the events at the Postville Agriprocessors facility, before and after the May 12 federal raid.

The sad events surrounding the federal Postville raid, resulting in multiple federal criminal-law convictions of line workers and low-level supervisors - and, notably, not yet of the company's owners - are strong evidence of a company that has chosen to take advantage of a failed federal immigration system.

In doing so, this company has fallen far short of meeting the high business standards that Iowans expect. Our laws reflect these standards. They protect consumers, Iowa workers and the state's environment.

Before the federal raid, Agriprocessors already had a history of sanctions by Iowa's state regulatory agencies for water pollution, as well as health and safety law violations. Alarming information about working conditions at the Postville plant - including allegations ranging from the use of child labor in prohibited jobs to sexual and physical abuse by supervisors; from the nonpayment of regular and overtime wages to the denial of immediate medical attention for workplace injuries - brought to national attention by the raid forces me to believe that, in contrast to our state's overall economic-development strategy, this company's owners have deliberately chosen to take the low road in its business practices.

I believe Iowa businesses should take the high road by following the law.

The Culver-Judge administration's executive agencies are reviewing documents and other evidence obtained in the course of their independent regulatory efforts and from the federal raid of the Postville plant. In response to these allegations against Agriprocessors, I have done the following:

First, I have directed my Cabinet members with responsibility for the meatpacking industry to ensure that they are aggressively and fairly applying Iowa's laws to this company.

Second, I directed Iowa Workforce Development Director Lis Buck to prevent Agriprocessors from listing open positions on state job-listings services due to the unsafe working conditions at the Postville facility.

Finally, as a result of my request to investigate Agriprocessors, Iowa Commissioner of Labor David Neil has filed complaints with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller alleging multiple prohibited uses of child labor. The lieutenant governor and I, in the strongest terms, call on the attorney general promptly to prosecute all alleged criminal and civil-law violations that are backed by sufficient evidence.

Agriprocessors has every resource at its disposal to be a good Iowa corporate neighbor - one that provides a safe workplace, pays good wages and benefits, protects our environment and respects the dignity of our workers. If its owners choose to operate in this manner, they will find a skilled work force ready to join this company. I want to publicly ask Agriprocessors to "take the high road" and join the family of responsible businesses in Iowa.

To date, in public statements, Agriprocessors' owners have denied any wrongdoing related to their business practices. They are entitled to do so. Because of Iowa's long history of clean and fair regulatory and judicial processes, companies like Agriprocessors, if accused of wrongdoing, will be afforded every due-process right to which they are entitled under law. But, at the end of the day, they must obey each and every law that protects workers and keeps our food supply safe.

A century ago, the great American novelist Upton Sinclair wrote of the horrifying working conditions in the meatpacking industry of the time. His classic novel, "The Jungle," drew attention to the issues of worker protection and food safety, and helped the industry modernize as a result. There will be no industrial "jungles" in Iowa on my watch.

Rather, let's use this occasion to ensure that all workers in Iowa - at Agriprocessors and elsewhere - are treated fairly, and under safe working conditions. Workers and consumers deserve no less.

[Hat Tip: The Other DK.]

Comments

[yidandahalf]

The rubash-ins are beyond the Pale and anyone who took their money is scurrying to find a way to white wash it.

[Rachel Batya]

--The governor's column could be read as an attempt to cover for himself and Judge in the event – perhaps already agreed on –charges are not pressed.--

Shmarya, I agree with you that the column reads like a campaign speech. If this were a televised speech, Culver would be lip-synching the words while someone who actually cares speaks into a microphone off-camera.

However, I disagree with you that he is trying to cover for himself in case no charges are pressed. On the contrary, I think he's trying to cover for himself in the likely event that charges *are* pressed. He sounds good and scared (and perhaps a little pissed off) that some of his campaign contributors have gone so far in the past few months that they have become a huge political liability. Now he's switching sides and pretending he's always been on the side of truth, justice, and the American way. The insincerity is palpable.

[sage]

Dream Team Trial:

Venue: Federal District Court of Iowa

Prosecutor: Iowa Attorney General

Defendents:

Abraham Rubashkin
Sholom Rubashkin
Heshy Rubashkin
Rabbi Weissmamdel
Rabbi Menachem Genack
Rabbi Seth Mandel
Nathan Lewin
Menachem Lubinsky
Other parties

Presiding Judge (Under Special Dispensation): Judge Judy Scheindlin

With Special Permission: Trial broadcast nationally on Court TV.

[Anonymous]

Let's prosecute Bunker for being a pompous asshole.

[isabel]

het Culver must move to bring the Rubishkin scandal to trial and send these crooks to jail,because the world is watching and if it dosen't happen soon, they will be covering up for them,you can't take bribes from people like this. Our public school system is also got Rubiskin crooks running it and the Iowa school board needs to step in and remove these people to keep our children safe.The whole town is afraid and they are still scaming the people on rent and wages.

[isabel]

Chet Culver must move to bring the Rubishkin scandal to trial and send these crooks to jail,because the world is watching and if it dosen't happen soon, they will be covering up for them,you can't take bribes from people like this. Our public school system is also got Rubiskin crooks running it and the Iowa school board needs to step in and remove these people to keep our children safe.The whole town is afraid and they are still scaming the people on rent and wages.

[Anonymous]

Archie continues to make poopy on this blog. Every time he posts, it leaks out of his depends.

Shame on him.

[sage]

Dear "Anonymous",

If you continue your invectives against Archie, I may have to make an appointment for you to have a counseling session with "Judge Judy."

[michael ben drosai]

hey sage - how come you and John Diamond have never been seen in the same place at the same time?

[sage]

Isabel, very enlightening post.

It seems that any place the Rubashkins set foot in, they cause immense ruination, all the while pocketing for themselves ill gotten blood-money.

One of the worst examples of what G-d fearing Jews should be.

[Paul Freedman]

Shmarya: there's no support here to construe a demand for prosecution as an esoteric signal that there will be no prosecution

[Paul Freedman]

money is money but the government of Iowa is ultimately a gentile government with few chips riding on the Rubashkin clan if its charged recidivist nuisance value becomes a headache--RCA, OU, not their problem

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080823/NEWS/808230332/1011

Joe Regenstein, a Syracuse University professor who works with the kosher-food industry, said he was surprised to hear that rabbis stopped work over a lack of pay. Regenstein said he has no inside information about Agriprocessors' operations, but he noted that the plant could not continue producing kosher meat without the rabbis' cooperation. Friction with them is a bad sign for company leaders, he said. "It certainly suggests they have at least a cash-flow problem."

When asked Friday about speculation that plant owners had a cash-flow problem, Lubinsky said he was unsure. "It may very well be the case, but when it comes to finances, they keep the cards extremely close to the vest," he said.

Company Vice President Chaim Abrahams said he has not been at the plant this week because he is on vacation, but he described conditions there lately as "business as usual."

Regenstein said he is skeptical of the company's claims that it is making steady progress in rebuilding its business. "My sense is they're covering up how badly they're bleeding," he said. He added that the incident is another reason why the company should fulfill its promise to hire an outside chief executive officer to take over from Sholom Rubashkin, son of the company's founder.

The rabbis could not be reached for comment. They work for a New York agency run by Rabbi Menachem Weissmandl, who told the Jewish Star newspaper that Wednesday's incident amounted to a conversation between his employees and plant managers. He acknowledged that there have been delays in paying some of the rabbis, but he said that they said such things are commonplace in the industry.

The characterization of the situation as commonplace was disputed by Elie Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Empire Kosher, Agriprocessors' largest competitor in the poultry market. Rosenfeld said the rabbis at his company's Pennsylvania plant are paid through their agencies, but his company makes sure the payrolls are on time. He said he had never heard of rabbis walking off a job.

Food industry consultant Avram Lyons said he also had never heard of rabbis walking off the job in a pay dispute with a meatpacking plant. Lyons is working with the union trying to organize Agriprocessors' workers. He said kosher-plant managers usually work hard to keep the rabbis happy because the rabbis are much harder to replace than line workers. Wednesday's incident shows Agriprocessors' leaders "are in trouble," he said. "When your rabbis don't support you, the plant stops."

However, Lyons said he did not believe the incident indicates the plant is in immediate danger of closing. "They have lots of friends in lots of places who do not want this place to go under," he said. "These people have very deep pockets."

[Archie Bunker]

What kind of an oaf is Abrahams that he goes on vacation during the fight for Agri's survival?

[Carol Ann Varley]

Not their problem?

Maybe, if Agriprocessors sold its products only to the observant. However, the majority of its products (70%) are sold as non-kosher and this gets gentiles in the mix.

Also, there are labor issues which involve the government at state and federal levels.

Agriprocessors is not an island unto itself--its business practices extend far beyond the RCA and OU.

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/NEWS/80824026

Agriprocessors lashes back at Culver
By TONY LEYS • tleys@dmreg.com • August 24, 2008

Menachem Lubinsky, who serves as a company spokesman, promised “a forceful response to the governor’s guilty verdict even before trial.” He said in an e-mail this afternoon that company leaders had not finished putting the response together.

Several business and political experts said Culver’s criticism was unusual, but they applauded it.

“I think it’s out of the ordinary. But then again, I think Agriprocessors is a little out of the ordinary, too,” said Mike Ralston, president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.

Ralston’s group includes most large Iowa employers, but not Agriprocessors. He said he wouldn’t want Culver to make a habit of publicly criticizing specific businesses. However, he said Agriprocessors’ notoriety has damaged the state’s reputation, making it fair game for the governor’s ire.

Culver wrote that he’d ordered workforce-development officials to stop listing open jobs at the plant, and that he’d urged Attorney General Tom Miller to prosecute any criminal or civil violations at the plant. He noted comparisons between Agriprocessors and the 1906 novel “The Jungle,” which shocked Americans with details of meatpacking abuses.

“There will be no industrial ‘jungles’ in Iowa on my watch,” the governor vowed.

Roederer said his only question was why Culver was speaking out now, given that problems have been evident at the plant for years.

In the DeCoster case, the company’s lawyer contended that Branstad’s criticism showed the state was biased against his client. But that contention didn’t prevent DeCoster from being banned from building new hog facilities.

Drake University law Professor Neil Hamilton said today that Agriprocessors’ lawyers could make a similar claim against Culver to try to fend off state sanctions. “If you’re a defense attorney, you can make any argument you want,” he said. But he added that such a strategy would be unlikely to work.

No top Agriprocessors executives face criminal charges, although federal officials charged two supervisors with helping illegal immigrants gain employment, and the investigation continues.

The family that owns the company has made tens of thousands of dollars in political donations, mostly to Republicans. However, it also contributed several thousand dollars to Culver’s campaign. The governor’s spokesman said today that the campaign recently donated that money to a shelter for homeless women and children. He said $10,000 the family donated to the 2006 gubernatorial campaign of Lt. Gov. Patty Judge could not be redirected, because that campaign’s fund was closed with a zero balance.

neseob wrote:

Agriprocessors owners have had more than enough 'due process' via getting away with violating state and federal laws for years. I'm sure Chet would welcome any lawsuits the Rubashkins are threatening to bring. But for a family whose members are awaiting sentencing for federal crimes in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they're putting up a pretty good front. The reason the court granted the Rubashkins motion to continue their sentencing in federal court was to give them(Rubashkins) a little more rope in Iowa. Now that Chet has basically kicked them to the curb, they have nobody watching their back. They've made Chet and Patty look pretty bad and Chet's fightin' mad.
8/24/2008 6:00:25 PM

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080824/OPINION01/808240340/-1/ENT06

Jeff Abbas of KPVL Radio in Postville has written a song parodying the recent problems at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant.

"Palau to Postville - a Topical/Tropical Tale."

It is sung to the tune of the "Gilligan's Island" theme. (Don't pretend you don't know it. More people know the "Gilligan's Island" song than can recite one line from the preamble to the Constitution.)

Here is Abbas's slightly edited masterpiece:

We're heading out to the United States

To produce some Kosher meat

In a place called Postville, Iowa,

Oy vey! It's a deal so sweet.

The place we're going is squeaky clean

And all the workers smile.

We watched the film the Rabbis made

The plant is not defiled.

We'll immerse ourselves in a friendly town

That really is quite quaint

But our friends warn us of one big thing

The beaches, they just ain't.

We'll be living in some real nice homes

They tell us dormitory-like.

We'll be together all day long

And likely all the night.

We've said goodbye to the tall palm trees

And the balmy tropic breeze

So we can go to Iowa

Where soon our butts will freeze.

Who wants to live on a tropical isle

Just like our predecessors

When we can go to Postville Land

And work for Agriprocessors ...

... We do have one small question, though

And it deals with a matter of fact

If we want to leave our position there

How the hell will we get back!

[Archie Bunker]

Here's why Postville school officials work so closely with Rubashkin:

http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=213531

In Iowa, district budgets are determined on a per-pupil basis -- to the tune of about $5,500 for child. Foreign language students generate even more, as the state helps support English as a Second Language courses.

Postville bills itself as "Hometown to the World," and its school follows suit. Hispanic children sat next to white children. White children sat next to the children of the Somali immigrants who have come to fill the empty slots at Agriprocessors, Inc. And the Somali children sat next to the Jewish children who belong to the parents who came to help work at the nation's largest kosher meatpacking plant.

(Some of the frum kids go to public school?)

[Archie Bunker]

At the very least, Rubashkin has no control

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2008/08/24/news_opinion/editorial/3e53877985780e18862574ad0078ca82.txt

Company spokespeople have maintained that the plant did not knowingly hire illegal workers; they claim they were duped. They also say the company did not aid any workers seeking to obtain immigration documents. Finally, they have urged the public to keep an open mind toward the alleged child labor violations, saying once again this was not company practice.

In the world of college sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association occasionally punishes member institutions for it what calls “lack of institutional control.” In other words, a college athletic department may not expressly permit coaches to promise recruits sports cars but the NCAA will hold it responsible if it has not been vigilant enough to make sure that’s not happening.

The guilt or innocence of this company as it relates to the raid and related charges has yet to be determined. Still, we can’t help but believe there is a clear lack of institutional control here. That should be enough to inspire outrage among the same masses that applauded the raid.

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?sid=13&contentid=20737

Another Young Israel rabbi with lame excuses why the Hechsher Tzedek concept won't work. While the Conservative are hypocrites, Yong Israel is trying to attack the basis so that the OU can squirm out of responsibility.

[Archie Bunker]

http://www.thespoof.com/news/spoof.cfm?headline=s8i38951

[sage]

+++ They've made Chet and Patty look pretty bad and Chet's fightin' mad.
8/24/2008 6:00:25 PM

Posted by: Archie Bunker | August 25, 2008 at 10:34 AM +++

And if they can get Judge Judy on the Bench, G-d have mercy on the accused !!!!

[WoolSIlkCotton]

Another Chassidic Jew does the perp walk!

http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/Silber_Zalman.html

Zalman Silber of Monsey and Boro Park, pretending to be a gynecologist!