Swift Receives Several
Applicants for Vacant Positions
February 13, 2007
By The Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa
Swift
& Co., one of the nation's largest meatpacking
processors, is recovering from huge job vacancies
and financial losses after being hit by
immigration raids in Minnesota and other states.
The privately held company, which
was targeted by a wide-scale immigration raid
Dec. 12 in Iowa, Minnesota and four other states,
is filling positions made vacant by the raids,
spokesman Sean McHugh said.
Swift lost 1,282 employees, or about
10 percent of its work force, after the raids.
The company hasn't changed hiring
practices since the raids. The government still
checks for discrepancies in
Social
Security numbers, as part of a pilot program
to identify illegal immigrants, McHugh said.
But the system fails to allow the
company to further question an individual's status
because it could accused of discrimination, he
said.
The company's pork processing plants
are at normal production levels, company officials
said.
Beef plants are at 70 percent of
capacity, but should rebound by May after new
hires are done training, McHugh said.
He said Swift lost about $30 million
after the raids.
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