November 27, 2006

Stillmore: Crider Poultry employing homeless, felons instead of illegal aliens

In September, ICE raided the Crider Poultry plant in Stillmore, Georgia, which resulted in hundreds of illegal aliens leaving the city. That resulted in pro-illegal immigration propaganda from Russ Bynum of the AP, Reason Magazine, and Patrik Jonsson of the CSM, as well as a lawsuit from the Southern Poverty Law Center, a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government.

Now comes the news that Crider is hiring the homeless as well as felons on probation from the Macon Diversion Center; the homeless are provided by a local mission which is trying to recruit more workers for the plant. And, both Crider and the AP are still trying to buck the (legal) market for labor:

...To fill the gap, Crider also has been outsourcing jobs in its raw deboning plant to Alabama, has raised wages to attract new workers and has turned to an outside company to hire about 100 cleaning workers. The plant has seen its processing slow down because of the smaller workforce, officials said.

Purtle said the company is also spending more on hiring _ paying to bus in the probationers, for example _ and on training, because many of the new hires have poor attendance and quit quickly...

Desperate third world illegal serf laborers do indeed tend to work hard and without complaint, don't they? However, if Crider wants to abide by our laws, they'll have to learn about the legal employment market. At some wage or benefit level, they will find that attendance and retention improves dramatically. (That makes the somewhat questionable assumption that they're telling the truth.) If they have to rely on desperate third worlders to pluck their chickens, then perhaps that's a sign that they should go into another line of business or automate. The article also contains this bit:

Pastor Ariel Rodriguez said some people have gone back to Mexico, while the majority went to Kentucky, following a priest who used to live near Stillmore.

I wasn't able to find out who he's refering to, but hopefully the ICE will be hot on his heels.

Posted to Immigration at November 27, 2006 05:33 AM

Comments

Even if imperfect, this seems like really good news. Crider provides an opportunity for legal "undesirables" to reenter the workforce and be productive members of society while rebuilding their pride/esteem/resume. If Crider sees them worthy and productive, they'll earn a higher wage and the natural market wage pressures will prevail. The company follows the law, the employees become "desirable", the business prospers without fear of government crackdown (assuming enforcements are happening), the earned currency is spent/taxed locally to contribute to the coffers, and the temptations of the unemployed to cause mischief are reduced.

I love it.

Posted by: AnonymousDrivel at November 27, 2006 08:00 AM

Americans who have paid their debt to society should be first on the list to be welcomed back into the mainstream with job opportunities. Half the prison population is for drug offenses. And the drugs get here how? ICE, illegals bring the drugs and then we put Americans behind bars. Meanwhile, ICE won't even deport one illegal poster girl out of a Chicago "church". Americans are punished, for being victims of the criminals who ignore our borders, while illegals are being praised by our presidente. Unbelievable.

Posted by: Jeebie at November 27, 2006 09:32 AM