MOUNT VERNON (Ohio) NEWS May 11, 2006
Palmer: Ohio Fresh Eggs does not recruit in Mexico
By Melissa Raines News Staff Writer
CROTON – Ohio Fresh Eggs general manager Harry Palmer said the stories told by his employees are not true. Employees of the Croton egg megafarm told the News that OFE recruits employees from Mexico, and some of the employees said they had been recruited themselves and brought to America to work for OFE. One man said he traveled to the United States when he was only 17, after being recruited in his village.
“Absolutely not, said Palmer in response to the statements, adding that the former owners of the egg farm did in fact recruit workers in Mexican villages. Palmer said that Buckeye Egg, formerly owned by Anton Pohlman, had different hiring practices than the current owner, Donald Hershey. Ohio Fresh Eggs LLC bought the company from Pohlman in 2003.
“We have not recruited or have anybody recruit in Mexico since we’ve been here,” Palmer said.
Palmer said that the employees’ statement that several illegal immigrants are employed at the Croton egg farm are also not true.
“We check everyone we hire through the program that’s run by the federal government. They have to have two forms of ID, and they make sure that the Social Security number is legitimate and the documentation is legitimate,” he said.
He also said nobody is hired unless they are run through the federal system, and the company has turned workers away because their documentation turned out to be illegitimate.
According to Palmer, existing employees can not be checked through the federal system.
“I wanted to run all of our existing employees through the program, but I couldn’t. That came from the government. They said it would be discriminatory,” Palmer said.
The program is the Basic Pilot Program, administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. According to a representative of the Basic Pilot program, only newly hired workers can be run through the system, not applicants or existing employees.
“These pilot programs offer the only means available for employers to verify the information that their newly hired employees have provided on the Form I-9 attesting that they are authorized to work in the United States,” the government description of the program states. The Basic Pilot program is voluntary.
Employees aid that many workers did not come to work May 1, but Palmer said last week’s boycott by immigrants and their supporters did not shut down his operations.
“It was an almost insignificant amount. There were some that went out, but we had coverage in all the barns,” Palmer said.
Of his employees’ statement that they work “hard, long” 12-hour shifts at the egg farm, Palmer said the shifts are 6 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute break for lunch. The employees work six days a week, according to Palmer, for a total of 57-hour work weeks. But, he said, these shifts can vary according to egg production.
Many of Ohio Fresh Eggs’ workers live in housing provided by the company, according to Palmer, who said the company provides many benefits for its employees.
“We don’t charge them rent, and they are near the barns so if an alarm goes off they can run over and check it,” Palmer said.
When asked about the H2 guest worker program that makes legal workers available to employers, Palmer said it was not an option for OFE.
“We went through and looked at that program. There was a whole bunch of stuff that didn’t work for us,” he said.
Pending legislation passed by the House of Representatives, which would criminalize illegal immigrants and call on law enforcement to arrest and deport all illegal workers, does not appeal to Palmer. Like many area farm operations, OFE depends on immigrant labor. Palmer said OFE couldn’t run the operations it does now without immigrant labor.
“You could never do it,” he said. “It would hurt our bottom line. It would affect farmers across this country.”
Palmer said American farmers would be unable to compete with Mexican and South American growers if immigrant labor is drastically affected. He also said Americans would not do the jobs his immigrant employees do.
“People are so used to union this and union that …,” he said, adding that his immigrant workers do an outstanding job.
“We’ve got a lot of good employees. They’re reliable, they’re there every day when you need them.”
Palmer said the company follows all tax laws.
“Everybody that works for us pays taxes,” he said.
Although the employees say that they are treated well, they say that they sometimes encounter problems in the community. One employee told of problems he experienced dealing with the local school system. Palmer said he tries to make sure his employees can access community resources such as school services.
“I’ve gone and met with all of the superintendents and the school officials up north (at the company’s Marseilles facility),” he said. “I’ve told them that if you need an interpreter, I’ll help with the interpreter. I want to help our people.”
Despite the discrepancies in what the company and its employees have to say about immigrant labor at the megafarm, workers say they are glad to have their jobs at the egg farm.
“It’s a good job,” said one worker. “We are treated O.K.”
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