Worse yet for Agriprocessors, the reporter is Chabad's friend…
…Sue Fishkoff, writing for the JTA:
…Agriprocessors is pouring money into new equipment, including an automatically timed salting and soaking process that went online a couple of months ago. New workers say they are receiving their overtime pay, in contrast to workers before the raid who say their pay stubs were doctored.
Some new workers, however, tell reporters their paychecks show unexpected deductions; several of those workers have since quit.…
A Chicago man, who answered an online ad placed by a temp agency in Indianapolis, signed up for a 60-hour workweek and is looking forward to the overtime.
“I just had my interview, and I told them I’ll chase ‘em, I’ll cut ‘em up, whatever they want,” he said.
Like some other new workers this man, who declined to give his name after Jacobson representatives told employees not to speak to the media, said the temp agency made certain promises that have not panned out.
“They told me I’d pay $100 the first week for housing, and $60 a week after that, but the company told me today I have to pay $100 every week,” he said.
His pay is deposited directly into a bank account, and he is charged $5 for each withdrawal, according to a withdrawal slip he presented for inspection. He says he was told he must withdraw that $100 every week and pay it back to his temp agency in cash.
[Aaron] Rubashkin dismissed the man’s complaint, suggesting that he “is free to take a bus home, no one is forcing him.”…
And there's more:
…Many of the arrested workers, who never met a Jew before coming to Postville, blame all Jews for what has happened to them.
“They abused me, I didn’t like them,” said one Mexican woman, a former worker at the plant who was arrested in the raid and now wears a GPS monitoring bracelet on her right ankle, unable to work or leave town as she awaits her Oct. 14 court date.
But she and others interviewed were happy to see more than 400 Jews come to town from Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul for a July 27 interfaith service, march and rally on their behalf. She listened to the pledges of support rabbis and leaders of the sponsoring Jewish groups made that day, and she takes their words seriously.
“I believe they will help us,” she said.
Fishkoff got a tour of Agriprocessors – something most reporters can't get. She got it presumably because she is considered a friend of Chabad.
Indeed, her entire feature article does not mention Chabad or Lubavitch, even though the Rubashkins are Chabad hasidim and many of the rabbis working at Agriprocessors are, as well.
But Fishkoff got the tour and this is what she saw:
…The tour revealed many empty workstations inside the plant, and more than a few beards and side curls on the assembly line, belonging to rabbis pressed into emergency service.
“To the media, this looks like a for-profit company on one side, and on the other side, individuals who are hurting and suffering,” said Abrahams, as he conducted a two-hour tour of the plant for a reporter. “But the company is also hurting and suffering. We are not able to keep up production levels and reach out to our customers.”…