Maine Egg Farm Workers Allege Labor Violations (DeCoster, again)

[Maine-ah]

http://www.mpbn.net/News/MPBNNewsforVillageSoup/tabid/1144/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3695/ItemId/15979/Default.aspx



It's been 15 years since former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich compared living and working conditions at the sprawling DeCoster Egg Farm to a sweatshop--and almost as many years since the egg farm was split into several companies and changed its name.

But workers say they still answer to Jack DeCoster and his son, Jay. They still call it DeCoster Egg Farm and some say conditions haven't changed very much.

"They promised us an apartment. They promised us that we would get a bonus especially for working in the cold conditions, and that we would have 40 hours regular, plus 20 to 30 overtime hours," said Leo Sierra, a former employee who says he worked for two years packing eggs, cleaning barns and ferrying workers between their apartments in Lewiston and the Turner egg farm everyday.

Speaking through interpreter Jose Lopez of LULAC, Sierra says he regularly put in 17 hours a day and never earned overtime. "This is the way it works: If I go and do this cleaning and it took me seven or eight hours I would only get paid three hours. No more hours, because they say it's the cost of production, and that's the way it is."

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[WatsonT]

1. I wonder how many are here illegally

and how many fear being replaced by illegal immigrations should they complain?

This right here is one of the major problems with an open border: it destroys labor conditions here.

Yet another reason to get control of this situation.

/no I'm not blaming the illegal immigrants for these problems. We need to crack down on the employers primarily.

[Sal Minella]

3. After the latest Salmonella outbreak in Jack/Jay DeCoster's egg-

production facilities in Iowa, Iowa Public Radio ran a clip of Jack DeCoster telling the press that he was "praying for the health" of those persons sickened by his Salmonella-infected eggs. (I don't know whether or not he prayed for the immortal souls of the people who died).

(The eggs already have Salmonella in them when they are laid, because of the filthy conditions the hens are kept in).

If I recall the news stories correctly, the State Legislature has now banned DeCoster from owning any egg-production facilities in the State of Iowa, so apparently he's working his way through the remaining 49 states???

BigAg lobbyists are currently trying to make a crime of filming conditions in these "factory farms" in Iowa -- talk about enabling abusers -- if this "no filming" law is passed, neither animal abuse nor employee abuse will be seen by the public.

Edit to add: From Grist, November 2010:
Another salmonella egg recall from a DeCoster-related company
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-11-08-food-another-salmonella-egg-recall-from-a-decoster

[CantAffordBootstraps]

2. These kinds of conditions and worse are what's facing the

American workers if Repugs break the unions and then defund the NLRA. Teabaggers seem to rant about their children's and grandchildrens' future regarding the debt, but they are totally missing the bigger picture: Their children and grandchildren will be working in sweatshops if they and the Repugs get their way.