CWA 1180 - Solidarity Works

Warehouse Workers Quit in Immigration Inquiry

By NINA BERNSTEIN
The New York Times, December 13, 2007

Fresh Direct, the online grocery delivery operation that caters to affluent and overworked New Yorkers, lost dozens of employees this week after federal immigration officials notified the company that its employee records were under investigation.

The company sent its workers a memo on Sunday and Monday saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to inspect the records of every employee and asked them to update their information and provide documents, like Social Security cards, to prove employment eligibility. At least 40 warehouse workers who could not produce proof that they were authorized to work in the United States quit or were suspended.

At the companyís warehouse in Long Island City, Queens, the work force, largely immigrants, reacted with panic and distress as news of the inquiry spread.

ìSome people just walked out the door,î said Sandy Pope, president of a Teamsters local that is one of two unions competing to organize the workers. ìThey were sobbing, with garbage bags full of their clothes from their lockers. They didnít feel they had any chance of fixing their paperwork, so they just left.î

Fresh Direct officials said in a statement that they were trying to comply with the governmentís request and keep their employees informed about the investigation. But they would not discuss any suspensions or resignations.

The federal investigation, part of a national campaign aimed at employers who hire illegal immigrants, comes in the midst the companyís busiest season and in the middle of a conflict over efforts to unionize some 900 Fresh Direct warehouse workers. The workers are scheduled to vote on Dec. 22 and 23 on whether to affiliate with either Local 805 of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters or Local 348 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which recently organized Fresh Direct drivers.

Ms. Pope, the Teamstersí president, said on Wednesday that the suspensions seemed to be an effort to thwart the union and that the companyís lawyers might have invited Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to scrutinize workers to weaken the union drive.

Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the federal agency, said, ìI would categorically deny that thatís the case.î

Jim Moore, the companyís senior vice president for business affairs, called the claim outrageous.

“At this point, Fresh Direct is intent on two things,” he said in a written statement. Complying with the requirements of federal law with respect to the I.C.E. audit and ensuring that its employees know the facts and are given the opportunity to participate in the union vote. He said the company had asked immigration officials to delay their audit until after the holidays, but they refused.

Without confirming or denying the investigation, Ms. Nantel said such audits were part of the agency’s stepped-up enforcement.

With new financing, she said, the agency recently hired 41 ‘forensic auditors’ to scrutinize employment eligibility verification forms, known as I-9ís, that companies are required to keep on file for every employee they hire.

“Certainly an I-9 audit is one investigatory tool that we use,” Ms. Nantel said. “Depending on the results of the audit, we’ll follow that investigation to whatever next step is appropriate.”

Companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants can face fines or criminal charges, but until recently, prosecutions were extremely rare. In some workplaces elsewhere in the country, workers without proper documents were summoned to the main office without warning, and taken away in handcuffs.

Union officials said that many Fresh Direct employees, who earn between $7.50 and $9.75 an hour, were so frightened of being detained and separated from their children that they stayed home on Wednesday. Others said they were told not to come back.

Ms. Pope said that some employees were warned by company officials not to show up for their paychecks. She said the union was scrambling to find clergy members or other volunteers to collect paychecks for workers who feared going back to the warehouse.

One 41-year-old woman from Ecuador, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of deportation, said she was let go with an expression of regret when she told human resources workers at the company that the Social Security number she had been using for nearly four years was false.

ìIím really desperate now because I have no money to send to my kids,î she said, referring to four children in Ecuador. ìI donít know what Iím going to do with my life.

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