美国国家公共电台 NPR Chicken Plants See Little Fallout From Immigration Raids

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

Federal immigration officials arrested nearly 700 workers at chicken processing plants in Mississippi. But you can still buy a rotisserie bird at your local supermarket tonight for less than $10. Administration officials say this kind of enforcement discourages illegal immigration, but critics say it just leaves undocumented workers even more vulnerable to exploitation. NPR's Scott Horsley joins us now.

Welcome to the studio, Scott.

SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE²: Hi, Audie.

CORNISH: So after this roundup, what kind of penalties have the chicken companies faced?

HORSLEY: None so far, although authorities say that could change because this is still an open investigation³. This was a particularly high-profile operation, but it's kind of typical of what we've been seeing in the Trump⁴ administration. Last year, there was a 300% increase in worksite immigration investigations⁵ and an even bigger increase in worksite arrest. But at the same time, we saw no increase in the number of charges brought against employers. Ted¹ Genoways wrote a book about the food processing industry called "The Chain." He told me this is reminiscent of high-profile raids at half a dozen Swift meatpacking plants back in 2006.

TED GENOWAYS: In all of those cases, there were work stoppages, huge numbers of people swept up, families divided but little to no consequences for the people who did the hiring. And those plants were back up and in production in fairly short order.

HORSLEY: And we're seeing signs of that in Mississippi as well. Koch Foods, one of the companies involved, said in a statement it closed for one shift yesterday but plans to keep operating to minimize customer impact. And Koch also announced plans for a hiring fair in Mississippi on Monday. And, Audie, the company said applicants⁶ should bring two forms of ID.

CORNISH: Yeah, Koch has already been cited for workplace discrimination. So what can you tell us about that and the other companies involved in the raids?

HORSLEY: Yeah. Last year, Koch Foods - which, by the way, is no relation to Koch brothers - paid nearly $4 million to settle a complaint brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Latino workers at the company's plant there in Morton, Miss., had accused the company of both racial and sexual harassment⁷.

Another of the companies targeted in the raids this week, Peco Foods, had two workers suffer amputations last year. The chicken industry boasted that its processing plants have been getting safer, but poultry⁸ workers are still twice as likely to suffer serious injuries and six times as likely to contract a workplace illness as other private sector⁹ employees. Debbie Berkowitz is a former OSHA official I spoke¹⁰ with today. She now oversees¹¹ safety programs for the National Employment Law Center (ph).

DEBBIE BERKOWITZ: The industry is totally dependent on finding workers who will not raise issues and who, to a degree, live in fear of the company. And they'll just keep their head down and do the work. And for the last 30 years, that's been immigrant labor¹².

HORSLEY: We did see after the Swift raids more than a decade ago some employers did shift to hiring more refugees, for example. But as this week's raid suggest, many of these food processing plants are still heavily dependent on undocumented workers.

CORNISH: Is there a sense that these - the high-profile nature of these raids could change anything in this industry?

HORSLEY: There's really not a lot of change on the horizon. You know, a quarter-century ago, the late journalist Tony Horwitz wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning piece in The Wall Street Journal about the miserable¹³ working conditions at a chicken processing plant. And Debbie Berkowitz, who worked with Horowitz on that story, told me today things really haven't changed much since then.

BERKOWITZ: Americans really need to think about where their chicken and where their beef and where their pork comes from and really demand that the industry raise labor standards.

HORSLEY: But if anything, Audie, the industry appears to be moving in the opposite direction. The Agriculture Department is looking at deregulatory moves that would actually speed up processing lines in both beef and pork plants.

CORNISH: That's NPR's Scott Horsley.

Scott, thanks for your reporting.

HORSLEY: You're welcome.

1 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

6 applicants   

申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There were over 500 applicants for the job. 有500多人申请这份工作。
• He was impressed by the high calibre of applicants for the job. 求职人员出色的能力给他留下了深刻印象。

7 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

8 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

9 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

10 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

11 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。