Agri Facts

In response to the charge that there was a travel bag filled with cash in Sholom Rubashkin’s home and therefor he should be denied bail, Sholom’s attorney Guy Cook said the following in a Telegraph Herald article:

“The facts have been taken out of context and they are misleading,” Cook said. “There was no suitcase full of money. There was reference to a travel bag full of money. There was no travel bag; it was a tote bag with some cash in it that had been moved to a location in the closet where his autistic son would not cause any mischief to it.”

December 8, 2008

NEW YORK (JTA) – Lawyers for the former head of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse asked a judge to reconsider his decision to deny bail.

In court documents filed Dec. 5, lawyers for Sholom Rubashkin made a substantial argument over the fact that the original detention order deeming Rubashkin a flight risk cited Israel’s Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to every Jew. Some Jews saw the ruling as setting a dangerous precedent that could be used to deny bail to Jewish defendants solely on the basis of their religion.
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The following was posted on a petition at www.waronkosher.com, very interesting:

# 2,047: 8:35 am PST, Nov 13, Michelle Rader, Iowa
It is very easy to say that the govt. is finally doing their job and there is no anti-semitism involved. On first glance that appears true. However, consider that this is the only business in this area to be scrutinized to the point of harrassment. The various govt, agencies are breaking their own laws by orchestrating a campaign of relentless interference and most importantly “intimidation” against Agriprocessors and its empolyees.

My husband works in a key position at Agri that puts him with and around the officials of every investigating agency. He was told by more that one person that they received information and tips from other agencies. This is forbidden. They have also re-entered the plant to continue investigating when they were violating laws to do so.
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By Itzhak Schier - www.helprubashkins.com

For quite some time now, the eyes of various press and special interest groups have been focused on a meatpacking plant in the tiny American heartland town of Postville, Iowa.

After all, the owners and employees of this plant appear rather unusual against the background of what had been a nearly deserted Midwestern agricultural hamlet. Anyone who is familiar with modern Jewish history and emigration patterns could easily see that the origins of its owners were in a similar deserted hamlet, but in the former Soviet Union, by way of Brooklyn, New York.  And the product it manufactures is familiar to anyone who shops in any supermarket in Brooklyn, but hardly has a market even in larger towns in the plant’s home region. That is because the plant is Agriprocessors, the largest American producer of kosher meat in all its varieties until a series of unfortunate events forced its recent near closure and impending bankruptcy. Its owners are the Rubashkin family, whose patriarch and his wife managed to escape Soviet oppression to find freedom, first in Paris and then in the United States, where he began his business career by opening a small butcher shop in Brooklyn.
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On it’s website dedicated to attacking Agriprocessors, the UFCW (union) makes the following claim:

“In July 2006, Food and Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization, released a report on Salmonella issues at USDA-inspected broiler chicken establishments. According to the report, Agriprocessors failed to comply with USDA Salmonella standards on two separate occasions in 2000 and 2005. Contamination rates for the failed test periods at Agriprocessors equaled 25.5 percent in 2000 between the time period 5/9/00 to 11/29/00 and 29.4 percent in 2005 between 8/1/05 to 12/1/05.

For the full report, titled Foul Fowl: Salmonella in Chickens, please visit Food and Water Watch’s website.”

What the UFCW conveniently forgets to mention is that it isn’t a issue only at Agriprocessors, on the contrary, it is an issue industry wide . The same report includes many other plants that failed Salmonella testing, with some of them failing more frequently and with a greater percentage than Agri.
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The Labor commissioner of Iowa Dave Neil has gone out of his way to levy heavy fines and penalties against Agriprocessors; beginning with the alleged child labor violations to the nearly $10 Million in proposed fines for alleged wage violations. After performing a simple web search and reading the following information, his pro labor slant becomes clear and raises the question whether he is abusing his power as labor commissioner to further his sympathies for the union movement.

Dave Neil Has a long history of being active in the union. He started his career at the Waterloo John Deere Tractor Works in 1960, where he joined Local UAW 838. From 1960 to 1978, Mr. Neil held various Union positions, including steward; financial secretary; vice president; divisional steward; full-time committeeman; elected negotiator; and secretary/treasurer of United Auto Workers (UAW) Agricultural Implement Council.
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As you may have read in the news, Governor Chet Culver of IA has been an outspoken critic of Agriprocessors; after reading the information below one has to wonder what the governor’s true motive is.

Here are some excerpts of an AP article, written in 2006 after he was elected governor;

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state’s 32,000-member teacher union on Friday endorsed Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver, declaring him “one of us”.
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August 28, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran

Like an amusement-park barker inviting passers-by to step right up and throw balls at some unfortunate’s head sticking through a hole, The New York Times editorial page seems to have been calling on any and all to pitch print projectiles at a mark of its own: the kosher-meat producer Agriprocessors.

An editorial in that paper on Aug. 1 was titled ” ‘The Jungle’ Again” — a reference, of course, to Upton Sinclair’s famous novel depicting the horrors of the meatpacking industry in early 20th-century Chicago. That book depicts a world of unsanitary, cruel and unsafe conditions, with human fingers mixed into ground meat, gross mistreatment of workers, corruption, venality and filth. Having set the tone with its title, the Times’ editorial begins by referring to “a slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa” with “an ugly reputation for abusing animals and workers,” and goes on to cite “reports of dirty, dangerous conditions” there.
 
A cynic, or perhaps just a savvy observer, might note that many of the alleged abuses have been denied and none confirmed, and that federal inspectors were a constant presence at the plant.
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Temmy Shmull, the Republic of Palau’s minister of state, is in favor of sending an additional 150 of his countrymen to work at Agriprocessors in Postville, but says the final decision has yet to be made.

Schmull, who represented the country’s outgoing president at the United Nations in New York, took an alternative path back to his home in the tropics by way of Postville. While there he met with the roughly 150 Palauans who have been recruited to work at the kosher meatpacking plant. He told the Saipan Tribune that the workers are in good condition and well protected by U.S. labor laws.

“I’m happy for them because they have been given the opportunity to have a job,” Shmull said of the 150 workers. He said that aside from the bigger salary, the workers are also guaranteed medical insurance, paid vacation and other social security benefits under federal regulations and labor systems. He said this is a big impact to Palau’s economy.
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By Getzy Markowitz

The era of the mob has come to a close. Once the fixtures of the back alley and in-your-face sudden attacks, the Capones and Gotiis have been relegated to movie screenings. The mafia still exists, but like bad Hollywood take-offs, they are generally try-hard copycats.However, many would argue that a new brand of mobsters have become legitimate criminals. Drive-by shootings are replaced by character assassinations in the drive-by media. A refusal of their demands will welcome impossible ones. Their wars have become deadlier and dirtier. Although wrong and offensive, they are backed by legal authority.
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