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| Swift Estimates Cost of Raids at $30M |
| 2007-01-05 |
| DENVER — Immigration raids that rounded up about 1,300 Swift & Co. workers at six meat plants last month could cost the company up to $30 million, officials said Thursday. Greeley-based Swift said its preliminary estimate of the one-time impact of the raids included $20 million, mostly in lost operating efficiency as new employees are retrained, plus up to $10 million to retain workers and offer hiring incentives to add back production employees. In Greeley, Swift placed newspaper ads offering new hires a signing bonus of $1,500. In related news, about 220 former Swift employees arrested during the Dec. 12, 2006 immigration raid now face criminal charges (up from the initial 65 individuals charged with crimes). |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #6 More and more companies are paying for background checks, even for the unskilled labor force. It is a good way to help HR cull the undesirables; if you have a rap sheet and Mr Goodwrench doesn't, then all things being equal, you get to take a hike. Seems to me an immigration violation would show up on that. Yes it costs $, but it is far cheaper than what Swift is alleging, since you find out far earlier. |
| Posted by: USN, ret. 2007-01-05 22:34 |
| #5 Deacon Blues is right, I was going through old nursery magazines. According to that article if you are informed that a workers SSN is not valid by the SSA you can't fire the worker for that. You are supposed to notify them of the problem and again at the end of the year. Then you rinse and repeat. IME workers notified that the SSN is not right, beat feet and are never seen again. Besides illegals do one thing most us citizens don't they join the union. Notice during all the immigration reform talk there hasn't been a peep from big labor about it. |
| Posted by: bruce 2007-01-05 21:12 |
| #4 An Employer is not allowed BY LAW to acertain if an employee is here unlawfully. I believe you, but seems to me that this is something that Congress and the President should be addressing. Oh right!! ... what was I thinking!! |
| Posted by: DMFD 2007-01-05 20:37 |
| #3 An Employer is not allowed BY LAW to acertain if an employee is here unlawfully. If a prospective employee presents evidence that he is Manuel Labor with a social security card and number issued to Manuel Labor the Employer has to accept that as genuine. They can run a check to see if Social Security number 123-45-6789 has been issued to Manuel Labor but they can not do any more investigating into if Manuel Labor is really who he says he is. Under these conditions it's very difficult to prosecute these companies for knowingly hiring unlawful aliens. Personal expierience is my claim here. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-01-05 19:41 |
| #2 IIRC, Swift was in full compliance with Social Security hiring regs before the raids. I find the financial incentives for Swift's new and current employees fascinating. I guess wages and benefits really are depressed when illegal workers replace American residents. |
| Posted by: mrp 2007-01-05 19:36 |
| #1 Tuning up the nano-violin right now. If I were running things - they'd be facing a hefty fine too. |
| Posted by: DMFD 2007-01-05 18:44 |