Crider Inc, a poultry processor in Stillmore, Georgia, lost half of its workforce in immigration raids over Labor Day a few months ago. That's right, half the people working there were illegal aliens. I offered Crider Inc some advice back in September on how to employ and attract legal workers.
Since then, Crider Inc has been importing homeless and prisoners on probation to fill the positions left empty. I applaud their actions in that regard. They have also increased wages and diverted some of their operations to Alabama. In addition they have turned to employment agencies for another 100 workers.
Has Crider Inc suffered due to the illegal alien crack down? Surely they have for the short term, but this business was based on illegal labor and unfair business practices. In essence it was an entirely illegal operation and they should suffer. I would argue that top management needs to be jailed as well. It's a shame they weren't.
The suffering is only short term though as they get their operations back into legal status.
This should be a warning to all businesses out there employing illegal aliens. Stop hiring illegal aliens and get your business back into legal status.
The shameful thing is that the management actually feels it has a right to complain that they're having business difficulties for something that they brought upon themselves.
AP
Each day, about 40 convicted felons from the Macon Diversion Center are bused in to work at the Crider Poultry plant in Stillmore. Another 16 men from the Garden City Rescue Mission in Augusta have worked in the plant, and the mission is looking to send more.
Crider President David Purtle said that's just a drop in the bucket for a plant operating at 450 employees, less than half of the 1,000 workers there before the raid.
To fill the gap, Crider also has been outsourcing jobs in its raw deboning plant to Alabama, has raised wages to attract new workers and has turned to an outside company to hire about 100 workers. The plant also has seen its processing slow down because of the smaller workforce, officials said.
Federal immigration officials began visiting the plant in May, estimating that about 700 workers at the plant were using false identification. Many employees were confronted and fired. Some left on their own.
Over Labor Day, federal agents raided the plant and rounded up more than 120 illegal immigrants working at Crider or living in surrounding counties. Since then, residents say Stillmore's Mexican population has plummeted, leaving the plant with a huge labor gap.
Since the raid, at least two landlords who had rented to immigrants have put their properties on the market.
There needs to be laws against these landlords as well since their business is deriving income from illegal aliens.
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed a lawsuit against the government for enforcing immigration laws in the Crider Inc case. You should need no further proof that the Southern Poverty Law Center is against America and the American people. They don't even want laws enforced.
Jake at Freedom Folks puts it succinctly
If, as a business, you choose to locate yourself in a thinly populated rural area, it seems the height of arrogance to then whine about not enough people to do the work. Most meat packing plants used to be located near larger cities. The companies purposely moved them to more rural locations to pay lower wages. It was a choice. I believe the term is "you made your bed now lie in it, bitch!"
Lonewacko also makes the point
... if Crider wants to abide by our laws, they'll have to learn about the legal employment market. At some wage or benefit level, they will find that attendance and retention improves dramatically. ... If they have to rely on desperate third worlders to pluck their chickens, then perhaps that's a sign that they should go into another line of business or automate.
