A Nebraska meatpacking plant is grappling with how to continue operations after federal agents arrested 76 undocumented workers in the state’s largest workplace immigration raid this year, decimating the company’s staff.
Glenn Valley Foods saw production drop 20% Wednesday as most workers stayed home following Tuesday’s raid, with company President Chad Hartmann saying the facility was left severely understaffed.
“You cannot, in my mind, replace a family member,” Hartmann told NBC News about the arrested workers, many of whom had worked at the plant for over 15 years. “They were part of our family, and they were taken away.”
The crisis reflects broader challenges in an industry that has become increasingly dependent on immigrant labor. From the 1960s to 1970s, meatpacking was a heavily unionized sector with wages comparable to auto and steel production. But starting in the 1980s, companies began relocating to rural areas and actively recruiting immigrant workers to reduce labor costs.
Real wages for meatpacking workers dropped from $20 per hour in 1977 to $10.50 in 2001, while union density fell from 40% in the 1970s to just over 16% by 2003, according to industry studies.
The company, which has processed boxed beef for more than 15 years, relied on workers who passed through the federal E-Verify system that a DHS official described to Hartmann as “flawed and easy to cheat.”
“That system doesn’t capture a solution if somebody’s got a fake ID. That’s what needs to be repaired,” Hartmann said.
He suggested the government should consider creating a limited amnesty period for undocumented workers who meet certain qualifications, including never committing a crime and demonstrating a desire to work and pay taxes.
The Department of Homeland Security said the arrests were part of an investigation into large-scale employment of workers without legal authorization. About a dozen of those arrested have been deported, while at least 63 others were taken to detention centers.
Hartmann said the company has “no other alternative” but to continue using E-Verify as it rebuilds its workforce, despite calling the system inadequate for preventing unauthorized employment.
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