A Cultural Shift in Postville: What type?

Scores of Somali immigrants are taking jobs at the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant, replacing Hispanic workers arrested in a huge immigration raid and forcing a remote Iowa town to make another cultural shift. Many of the Somalis who have come to Postville are legal immigrants with roots in Minneapolis, which has one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Somali immigrants.   

It appears that the Somali community in Minneapolis and elsewhere is abuzz with talk of well-paying meatpacking jobs at Agriprocessors. That runs counter to stories told by workers at the plant who described pay before the raid as $10 an hour or lower with no extra for overtime. Some also claimed the plant hired underage employees and forced its workers to endure unsafe conditions.

Beyond a cultural change for the town, will this new wave of hires change the culture of labor violations at Aggriprocessor? For the full story by the Associated Press, go to http://www.startribune.com/local/26001474.html?location_refer=Most%20Emailed.

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