Screws Tighten on Agriprocessors

August 5, 2008

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

For many weeks, there have been persistent allegations that Iowa’s Agriprocessors slaughterhouse relied on child labor. And now the New York Times reports that Iowa’s labor investigators have identified 57 slaughterhouse workers who were underage.

Iowa’s Labor Commissioner sums up the situation:

The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws.

Meanwhile, Agriprocessors says that it’s “at a loss to understand” the report. So allow me to help shed some light on what’s happening: the company is hosed beyond belief. They could be facing fines of at least half a million dollars for just the child labor violations.

You get the sense that the bad news for the company has only just begun. Remember, for instance, the initial reports following the raid that there was a meth lab operating at the plant? I’m still waiting to hear more details about that. Link.

Posted in Blog