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REUTEMAN: Tougher laws hurt Cargill hiring

By Rob Reuteman, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 9, 2008 at 8 p.m.

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Cargill Meat Solutions, which processes 4 million pounds of beef daily at its plant in Fort Morgan, has been 200 workers short for almost two years.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why.

In December 2006, a federal immigration raid at the Swift meatpacking plant in Greeley resulted in 260 arrests. In January 2007, tougher immigration laws went into effect in Colorado. They target employers who "knowingly" hire illegal workers. Fears were expressed then that immigrant workers would perceive Colorado as a hostile climate and take their labor elsewhere. "The jobs no one else wants" would not get done.

It's no coincidence that Cargill's hiring troubles began at that time. Despite constant advertising along the Front Range and an increased recruitment effort that ranges as far as Puerto Rico, El Paso, Texas, and Minneapolis, they can't hire the people they need.

This came to light in an extraordinarily frank letter printed Tuesday in the Fort Morgan Times, signed by Mary Ginther, human resource manager at the Cargill plant.

She wrote in response to recent efforts by Morgan County, 70 miles east of Denver, to lure a chicken-processing plant. California-based Foster Farms has been scouting locations in either Morgan, Logan or Weld counties. Company President Don Jackson told the Greeley Tribune last month his company would spend nearly $300 million to build a plant that would hire 1,200 workers. Foster also would spend $25 million in annual payroll and another $25 million to area farmers who would raise the chickens for them, he said.

In essence, Ginther's letter asked: If we can't hire 200 people, how the heck are you going to hire 1,200? Further, she expressed irritation with a state agency that told Foster the area could meet its employment needs.

"It is frustrating to be continually searching for a large number of employees while the Eastern Region Colorado Workforce Center is stating that our area could supply an additional 1,200 workers in order to attract new businesses to the area," Ginther wrote. "Please let us know where to find these workers."

Kari Linker, executive director of Morgan County Economic Development, said Friday, "The work force is tight in this area, period."

She held out hope that work in a chicken-processing plant might be more palatable to women, more so than a cattle slaughterhouse.

"They're both kill-floor environments, but the female population might find the work (at Foster) is more doable for them. I could see benefits if (Cargill and Foster) put their recruitment efforts together. Maybe we could attract families. We could employ the wife at one plant, the husband at the other. From an economic- development standpoint, we gave Cargill an opportunity to help our economy, and we want to do the same for Foster."

The pay at Cargill ranges from just under $12 an hour to more than $18 hourly. Foster Farms knows it needs to be competitive in salary, Linker said.

Don Jackson, president of Foster Farms, told me Friday, "We recognize labor is very tight in Morgan County and unemployment is low. We researched it but have not made an assessment that we have to rely on immigrant labor. Surely, there are some hurdles for us, and labor is probably the biggest. But we are not in the business of hiring illegal aliens. If we were to come to Colorado, that's not our practice."

I asked whether labor supply problems in Colorado had caused Foster Farms to suspend its search for a plant site.

"We've not come to that point," he said.

The Greeley Tribune wrote a thoughtful editorial on April 16, "Chicken plant: Good for Greeley?" It said, in part: "The possibility of Foster Farms locating here is a mixed blessing - good for Weld's agricultural community but doubtful for the long-term health of Greeley."

"The worst-case scenario would be a foul- smelling plant near the downtown area that would attract unskilled workers who would need the help of government and charitable organizations to get by, and strain an already-burdened school system. . . . The Greeley area has been working hard to grow beyond being known as just the stinky feedlot and meat-processing center of the Front Range."

Dan Pilcher, chief operating officer for the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, said the proposed chicken plant raises larger issues: "In effect, illegal immigrant workers have gone to other states. It has created a real labor shortage in agriculture, construction and hospitality. Our economic output as a state is suffering. We have to figure out, as a state and as a country, how we can bring in temporary or permanent immigrant labor to meet these needs."

Added Denver immigration lawyer Ann Allott: "We need to get work authorization and travel permission to the 500,000 undocumented workers in Colorado. This country would boom like it did in the '90s."

Business editor Rob Reuteman can be reached at reutemanr@RockyMountainNews.com. To comment on this column, go to RockyMountain News.com/business.

Comments

  • May 10, 2008

    6:08 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    MichaelClark writes:

    It certainly is a very complex issue. The immigrants' rights advocates (so-called) obviously have a much larger agenda than just getting fair treatment for these folks, whether legal or illgal. In a larger sense, this is a cultural war between those who would seek to preserve a heritage and a way of life with values that have been long cultivated in our society. Some elements use rhetoric that imputes racism or chauvinism, or cultural elitism to the people of this persuasion. But really, it is usually those who cry injustice who are attempting a form of unfairness to the people who are true natives here, regardless of racial derivation. The flood of immigrants and the implications of allowing this to continue unabated are very drastic toward the maintaining of all that we have come to value as Americans. Yes, a small amount of diversity and newness can and should be allowed to flavor the culture. But that is certainly not the end that these clamorous, social-change agents are seeking. We would do well to see through their dishonest agendas, and fight hard to keep the good that God has blessed us with here in this bounteous land.

  • May 11, 2008

    9 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    dencolo writes:

    Huh?

  • May 11, 2008

    3:14 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Awal writes:

    "Cargill Meat Solutions, which processes 4 million pounds of beef daily at its plant in Fort Morgan, has been 200 workers short for almost two years.

    It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why."

    No, it takes Economics 101. If Cargill has been 200 workers "short" for two years they either: don't care (i.e. can do the job without the extra 200 employees or won't pay a market-clearing wage that will fill their positions.

    You're right, either way it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.

  • May 12, 2008

    9:25 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    MtnRooster writes:

    Cargill should raise their wages instead of taxpayers paying to bring in lower wage earners.

  • May 12, 2008

    9:30 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    rreute writes:

    THANKS FOR WRITING ON AN UNPOPULAR POINT OF VIEW. IT WOULD BE SO EASY FOR OUR GOVERNMENT TO ISSUE WORK VISAS I CAN GUARANTEE THAT OUR ECONOMY WOULD THRIVE ONCE AGAIN. I OFTEN WONDER WHEN ALL THE ANTI IMMIGRANTS BASHERS WILL FIGURE OUT THE POSITIVE THAT THESE HARD WORKING PEOPLE HAVE BROUGHT TO OUR ECONOMY. THEY BUY CARS, HOUSES, PAY TAXES AND PURCHASE GOODS. IN ORDER FOR A COUNTRY TO PROSPER THERE HAS TO BE GROWTH. IF YOU REMOVE TWELVE MILLION PEOPLE JUST THINK OF THE DEVASTATING EFFECT IT WILL HAVE. IF THE UNDOCUMENTED WHERE GIVEN WORK VISAS WE WOULD THRIVE AGAIN. THE BIGGEST LIE IS THAT MEXICAN PEOPLE DO NOT ASSIMILATE WHICH IS UNTRUE. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN CITIZEN FROM MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS. TRUST ME ALL OF US HAVE ASSIMILATED QUITE WELL. WE ALL SPEAK ENGLISH AND MY SON GRADUATED FROM COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES. THERE IS SO MUCH LAND AND OPPORTUNITY FOR GROWTH THAT WE WOULD ALL PROSPER. THE PROBLEM IS THAT IT IS SO EASY TO PICK ON THE POOR. BUT TRUST ME AS AN AMERICAN WITH THE RIGHT TO VOTE I WILL REMEMBER WHO OPPOSES THE INTEGRATION OF THESE HARD WORKING PEOPLE. AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED WHY DOES MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL AND THE NHL GET A PASS TO GET VISAS FOR THE ATHLETES? INS. LOOKS THE OTHER WAY KNOWING DAMN WELL THAT HALF OF ALL THE DOMINICANS HAVE LIED ABOUT THEIR AGE, AND THEY STILL GET VISAS. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE AN INS SWEEP AT A MAJOR LEAGUE BALL PARK. THAT WOULD BE ONE HELL OF SCANDAL. JUST BECAUSE THEY CAN HIT A BALL HELL THE UNDOCUMENTED MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ALL OF US TO EAT

  • May 12, 2008

    9:31 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    rreute writes:

    It’s my understanding that wages on the kill floor at the meat packing plant in Greeley fell from an average of almost $20/hr a decade age to slightly over $9/hr now. Do you suppose that this might have anything to do with Cargill’s worker shortages? Talk of jobs that Americans won’t take should really be described as jobs with such deplorable wages and working conditions that no one but the truly desperate will take them. And that seems to be the goal of the Bush administration. Reduce the middle class to such desperation that they are forced to compete with a powerless and easily exploited flood of illegal workers in a job market of continuously eroding wages and benefits. Welcome to the American dream!
    Chuck Woods
    Denver

  • May 12, 2008

    9:34 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    The_Punnisher writes:

    Pay a LIVING wage. Or import SLAVES. That is the BOTTOM line.

    This is what uber capitalism has brought us. How much does the TOP tier people take home in compensation vs the BOTTOM tier people?

    Who pays for living NEEDS of the SUBSTANDARD wage earners? THE TAXPAYER!!

  • May 12, 2008

    1:54 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    rreute writes:

    Since we already feature 500,000 illegal aliens in the State of Colorado--why don't we offer a legal visa to five or 10,000 of them to work in Ft. Morgan and elsewhere? That would save money for transporting another 5,000 and families to our state.
    Simple, smart, effective and efficient!
    Frosty Wooldridge
    Westminster

  • May 19, 2008

    11:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jumpman23 writes:

    I know I am a week late, but this article is interesting, since I’ve worked at Cargill for a couple months and the fact that I have live in Fort Morgan for the past 17 years, well I’ll just say I know what going on around here. The thing is Cargill knows that if Frost Farms opens near Morgan County, it would lose plenty of workers that it could only run one shift.

    People are tire of Cargill being the only place to go work for, it hell on earth. When Wal-Mart open few years ago, everyone applied to get pay $8.00 to stock groceries or whatever job they can get, just to stay away from the non-stop 8 hour beat down you get for $11 bucks an hour. So if that was the case then, if Frost Farms were to open just imagine all people that are willing to process a 5 lb chicken instead of a 1000 lb cow for a couple bucks less. Also one another thing, paying a union fee to a Union like Teamsters for nothing because they do nothing for workers at Cargill, it like if Cargill and Teamster sleep in the same bed.