Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Tuesday 13 augusT 2019
After Mississippi ICE raids, job fair draws hopeful workers

By JEFF AMY government job board.
Associated Press Only a few dozen other jobs
FOREST, Miss. (AP) — Days are listed within 10 miles of
after immigration agents Morton, many of them at
arrested 680 Latino work- fast food restaurants or dol-
ers in a massive workplace lar stores. The options are
sting at seven Mississippi a little better in the larger
chicken processing plants, town of Forest, thanks to
job seekers flocked to an defense contractor Ray-
employment fair Monday theon and a sawmill. But Ty-
in hopes of filling some of son, Koch and other chick-
those now-empty positions. en plants still dominate the
Koch Foods, based near market. Pearl River Foods, a
Chicago, held the job fair plant raided in the town of
to recruit new workers at Carthage, posted 200 jobs
one of its Morton plants, Aug. 1, starting at $7.25 an
after Immigration and Cus- hour.
toms Enforcement agents Ralphtheia Nichols, a
on Wednesday arrested 51-year-old Lake resident,
243 workers suspected of estimated she had worked
working without legal au- for various chicken plants
thorization. maybe 20 times over the
By 10 a.m., a crowd of A plant employee stands near a refrigeration unit as business continues at this Koch Foods Inc., decade. She was back
plant in Morton, Miss., Thursday, Aug. 8, 2019, following Wednesday's raid by U.S. immigration of-
dozens was on hand, and ficials. In an email Thursday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Bryan Cox Monday to apply again,
steady stream of people said more than 300 of the 680 people arrested Wednesday have been released from custody. seeking part-time work.
came and went. Most Associated Press "This is one of the lowest
were black and spoke with places for income and
accents from the American applicants at a state em- ing off skin, to cutting with hiring. Angela Stuesse, an they really don't pay," Nich-
South. A few appeared ployment service office in super-sharp knives, to box- anthropology professor ols said of employers in the
white or Hispanic. Forest, was more succinct: ing up chicken, much of it at the University of North area.
While the raids at seven "They hire anybody." done in near-freezing tem- Carolina who spent years The Koch plant last year
plants were unprece- The 25-year-old has worked peratures. The line moves among labor organizers in agreed to pay $3.75 million
dented, chicken process- in chicken plants before fast and people repeat Morton and nearby towns, to settle a federal Equal
ing facilities are normally and was considering a re- the same motions over and said the desire for cheap, Opportunity Employment
plagued by heavy turnover turn, but wanted to see if over. docile labor led poultry Commission lawsuit alleg-
and ravenously seek em- wages had gone up. Plants "It's definitely hard," said firms to begin recruiting ing that managers sexu-
ployees. Koch spokesman in recent years have typi- Cedric Griffith of Magee, Spanish-speakers in the ally harassed female em-
Jim Gilliland said Monday cally paid $11 to $12 an who said he's been working late 1990s. At first, Stuesse ployees and discriminated
that job fairs are a "fre- hour, according to labor at McDonald's after getting said they were people who against them because of
quent occurrence." statistics, but Nicholson said fired from another chicken could legally work. But they their race and national ori-
"They are part of normal he wants $15 an hour. processor for missing too were eventually replaced gin. Citing a pattern of im-
efforts to employ," Gilliand Like Nicholson, many who many days. by Mexicans, Guatema- migration enforcement ac-
wrote in an email. "In this applied Monday were "You're going to lose of lot lans and others who often tions after companies got
environment of relative full chicken plant veterans. of weight. Nine times out of lacked legal working pa- into trouble over working
employment, most busi- They understand the ardu- 10, when that week is over, pers. Later, came a wave conditions, many Demo-
nesses are looking for quali- ous and sometimes dan- you're tired." from Argentina, Uruguay crats and union support-
fied applicants; Koch is no gerous work of slaughter- That draining work, at rel- and Peru. ers in recent days have
different." ing, butchering and pack- atively low wages, leads Koch has hundreds of jobs asked whether the raids
Eddie Nicholson Jr. of Lou- aging chicken, from hang- many people to quit. So posted for its Morton fa- had something to do with
isville, among Monday's ing up live chickens, to pull- chicken plants are always cilities on a Mississippi state Koch's troubles.q

Unclear when irrigation tunnel will be fixed after collapse

By JOSH FUNK with the Gering-Fort Lara- that delivers water to farm- soybeans, sugar beets and lapse was an unavoidable
Associated Press mie Irrigation District said ers in eastern Wyoming and alfalfa. Without the irriga- act of nature, which would
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More Monday that workers were western Nebraska. The wa- tion water, farmers may not mean crop insurance
than 100,000 acres of farm- still removing dirt and shor- ter comes from the Whelan harvest much of a crop this would cover it.
land in Nebraska and Wyo- ing up the tunnel. Diversion Dam on the North year. Mackie said the lost crops
ming remain dry after an If the collapse is confined Platte River. "I don't see any hope to- will hurt the entire valley
irrigation tunnel collapsed to the roof, it may be re- Officials believe the col- day," farmer Jerry Mackie because farmers will have
last month, and it's not pairable this year. If the lapse may have been said after attending the less money to spend.
clear when the tunnel will walls also collapsed, repairs caused by unusually heavy meeting on the collapse. "There's going to have to be
resume handling water. will take longer. spring rains and snow- Mackie said he doesn't some sort of help," Mackie
Officials have been work- "By the end of this week, fall that saturated the soil expect the corn and soy- said.
ing to repair the tunnel we'll have a firm idea of above it, placing extra beans growing on his land The collapse prompted
that's 100 feet (30 meters) what is going on," Preston weight on the tunnel. will produce much be- governors from both states
below ground since it col- said Monday at a public The arid region served by cause little rain falls in the to declare an emergen-
lapsed July 17, but they still meeting. the irrigation system is dom- area this time of year. And cy, which freed up state
are not sure how extensive The 14-foot-wide (4 meters) inated by farms that rely insurers haven't yet deter- resources to help local
the damage is. Rick Preston tunnel is part of a system on the water to grow corn, mined whether the col- officials.q