The Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville suspended production Monday, but one of its officials said the operation should reopen later this week.
The plant has struggled to survive since last May, when immigration agents raided it and arrested nearly 400 workers.
Agriprocessors stopped slaughtering cattle a few weeks ago, but it had continued processing chickens until last week. Among its many challenges are the fact that its biggest lender has sought foreclosure action on Agriprocessors; that its former top executive was jailed last week, and that it filed for bankruptcy earlier this month.
Chaim Abrahams, an Agriprocessors manager who has served as a company spokesman, said the company and the lender, First Bank Business Capital, met in bankruptcy court in New York on Monday. “We ended up striking a deal,” he said.
Abrahams said the bank agreed to let Agriprocessors use cash to meet its payroll and other immediate bills.
First Bank had asked the bankruptcy court not to allow the meatpacker to spend money until its debts to the lender were cleared up. In court papers filed Friday, Agriprocessors said it needed to spend money to remain in operation while it talks to potential investors. A cash freeze, the company said, “will cause irreparable harm to other creditors and leave (Agriprocessors) with no choice but to immediately cease all active operations.”
The company offered assurances to First Bank that the money would be repaid, but it said it needs to spend close to $1 million to pay its bills, including more than $300,000 for paychecks for line workers and rabbis who oversee production of kosher meat.
The bankruptcy judge decided Monday to appoint a trustee to help oversee the case. Abrahams said that details of the deal will be worked out this week and that poultry production lines should resume by Thursday.
(Source: Des Moines Register)
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23 Responses
Baruch Hashem
Baruch Hashem! May the Rubashkin family go from strength to strength! May prayers are with them.
Hang in there!
The gemora in Sanhedrin (109b) says that the one of the Rishus of the people of Sodom was that they did not want foreigners coming to their land, because they were wealthier than their neighbors, and were afraid that they’ll get poorer if the foreigners move in. According to the Ramban in parshas Vayerah (dibur hamaschil “vened’ah osam”), despite the fact that the Sodomites committed many aveiros, what sealed their destruction was the fact that they were anti-immigration.
And despite the fact that the malochim were breaking the local law by coming to Sodom, Lot had rachmonus on them and took them in.
Now, I’m not advocating complete open borders, because just like by Tzedoko we have Takanas Usha (that limits the giving to a sustainable level), so too the immigration must be gradual, in a way that the country can absorb.
But, rabbosai, pas nisht for ehrliche idn who have emuna ubitachon to express anti-immigrant views. Let’s not behave like anshe Sdom!
The chickens are seeking an injunction.
As per the advice of the Attorney for Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin:
Urgent!!
Shalom M. Rubashkin and the Jewish families of Postville are in URGENT need
of your support TODAY (November 18, 2008) by 5:00 p.m. Central Time.
We need personal letters faxed to 563-864-3460 that can attest to:
1. Length of time you have known Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin.
2. How you know Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin.
3. How you feel about him and the things he has done to help you or others you may know.
4. Why you know that Shalom Mordechai Rubashkin will not be a flight risk, and will show up to all the court cases and hearings as required.
It is very important that you mention in the letter how you feel confident he will not run from postville!!
Make sure you sign the letter and fax it.
re: #5 – letter senders should remember to be TRUTHFUL in their statements
#3, commonsense.
With all due respect, if you are equating that specific event with today’s immigration problems, I have a few concerns about how you are poskining.
How do you know that such an event is a paradigm for a blanket policy of a melting pot? How do you know that from there we learn to accept the lack of enforcement and in turn, violation of civil law, particularly in the domain of immigration? What about those who are paid immigration officers? Are you condoning their earning pay for not enforcing laws on the books? How do you know that from there we learn to hold a double standard where some immigrants have to tow the line and properly wait for their Visas at the same time others are hanging around the street corners living off of citizens tax dollars for housing, medical, schooling, and not paying taxes?
There are so many bad things one is supporting in America by being negligent about immigration laws merely because it is a financial benefit to some, and an unwanted expense to others.
Let’s put things in perspective.
We can live without meat and the Rubashkins are not going to be begging on the streets. However, there is a whole Frum community that developed from the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant. Most of them work there. For their sakes we need to daven that Hashem protect them and their families from the financial disasters that no doubt PETA is behind.
As others have stated, this isn’t the first company to be using illegal aliens. Although personally I don’t condone their actions in hiring illegals, it certainly looks like they’ve been targeted and I assuming that under the table money (most likely from PETA) is the incentive for doing so.
לפי עניות דעתי – our focus should be on the Frum employees and their families. It’d be nice if we’d have them in mind in our tefilos for a while that Hashem should protect their financial stability.
regarding # 5.
ONLY write a letter if its completley TRUE. There are thousands of us who were helped by the father, Aaron, this letter is about the son, Sholom who most of us do not know and never heard of until 3 months ago. He was a bigger bal chesed than his parents (if that is even possible)the man gave bli guzmah, millions of dollars a year to help feed almonois, yesoimim, schar limud, camp fees, clothing before yom tov etc.
The fax should be addressed to ..
Magistrate Judge: Jon Stuart Scoles
Address: 4200 C Street SW
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
United States District Court
Northern district of Iowa
#9, assuming it was PETA is just that, an assumption. PETA has the integrity to NOT do damage to a company for something other than what it’s mission is; to protect animals. There is evidence, although we might not like to hear it as we, myself included, always are on the lookout for anti-semitic motives, where PETA HAS FOUND shechita was not being performed properly and animals were suffering in a way that was not in accord with our laws. I am grateful to them for that and the other work they do. Remember, the earliest, truest, and unprecedented laws and concerns for animal rights comes from our own Holy Torah.
regarding # 9,
You hit the nail on the head. There are close to 75 mishpochois who were making a living directly from Agri. Most of them are stuck in Postville, with no where to go. People have not been getting paid and cant even affored to move, forget about even finding another job.
Milamdim are still teaching in the cheder not having been paid in months, shochtim are still working, not having been paid in weeks etc.
This is a matter of saving a whole Yiddishe community!!!
When was the last time an “oppurtunity” arose for us to help save a klal????
To C. Hall,
We finally agree on something. Pres. Bush was right with his plan on immigration.
To #8,
No one is advocating breaking current law, we want the law to change to reflect the need of incoming level employees for the industrial world.
There is a shortage of menial task workers in this country.
When the court-appointed people run the company,the people will have to do things legally. There will be no “under-the-table cash” payroll and hiring of illegals. At least some people will get their jobs back,and the public will get chicken. But what about MEAT? Chicken is available without agri-Rubashkin. They will have a hard time winning back the trust of the Jewish community. Good luck!
# 11
With all you assumptions you forgot to assume that
1) maybe Agri was not being cruel to animals.
2) to Peta ALL shchita is cruel
A- Peta has said that themselves. Only reason why they went after Agri is because its the biggest, they will come after the rest after they are done with this.
B- I and many others have been given the grand tour at Agri. It was something that MANY people did daily. I can tell you that Agri has the newest, most sophisticated and least cruel operation compared to many other shlachthoizes.
It’s not a joke, there is really a meat shortage in many areas of the US.
http://www.frumreport.com
#15, yochi.
I apologize if I didnt write out my point better. Someone else assumed PETA was behind this and I commented that their “assumption” was weak since PETA would go direct on the issues and not just try to zetz someone from behind the scenes. As you know, there have been efforts, and some successful, to outlaw shechita in parts of the world, and thank heaven PETA is NOT moving to do that, although they certainly have the power to do so.
While PETA may not have at their root the protection of animals from the way we see it, they indirectly have done some good work.
I have to categorically disagree with your opinion about PETA being against shechita for the reasons and to the degree you state as evidenced by this link, in the paragraph under the bold type.
http://getactive.peta.org/campaign/rabbinate_uruguay_petition
It states: PETA is grateful to the Jewish religion for its long history of compassion for animals and to Israel for its historic steps to improve animal welfare (such as by banning the force-feeding of birds to make foie gras). In fact, the Rabbinical Assembly, which represents more than 1,600 Conservative rabbis, continues to speak out strongly against shackling and hoisting. We believe that Jewish consumers deserve to know the truth about the kosher meat industry and the suffering that results from the “shackling and hoisting” method. Ending this practice would bring kosher slaughter laws more in line with the fundamental Jewish principles of tsa’ar ba’alei chayim (compassion for animals).
Again, it is not directly in line with us handling our own affairs, but it show PETA to hardly be the villain it is made out to be. And, who knows, they may even merit for helping us straighten out where we have become lax.
#18 Veryintersting,
The only problem with what you wrote is that Peta has been fighting with Agri. They came for tours (like I did) hid their cameras and then put on the Internet video of Agri doing KOSHER schita and they complained that it is hurting the animal where according to the halacha, the assembly line that Agri set up is not painful for the animal, its actually less painful.
So the fact that Peta is behind this is debatable, the fact that Peta has been publicly advocating Agri’s demise is NOT. They are public about it, just like the union.
This seems to be a fight fought by the union with $$ coming from Peta.
to #8 (“very interesting”),
you said
“How do you know that from there we learn to hold a double standard where some immigrants have to tow the line and properly wait for their Visas at the same time others are hanging around the street corners living off of citizens tax dollars for housing, medical, schooling, and not paying taxes?”
The answers are:
1) There’s no double standard. The US has its borders closed to poor uneducated foreigners. They come here illegally because they will never be allowed in legally. Those waiting in line for a greencard have reasons to expect they will be accepted (married a citizen, highly educated, etc.).
2) Regarding “living off of citizens tax dollars”, that is precisely the Rishus that caused Sdom’s destructions. Most immigrants are interested in becoming honest partners in building this country, and would pay any taxes were they given the opportunity to do so.
As a side point, there are tens of thousands of idn (in Latin America and elsewhere) who would benefit tremendously if the US would have a more open immigration policy (Believe me, I’ve shaychus to those areas and I know what I’m talking about). It’s nothing but achzarius for a yid here to express anti-immigrant views while so many others are left outside. Is this how you express your gratitude to being born in this wonderful country?
This is midas Sdom mamash!
Veryinteresting – 1) Yes, you are right. I was only speculating. If I new for a fact that PETA was paying off officials to go after Agriprocessing believe me I wouldn’t waste my time just commenting here. I’d be going after them!
2) As far as PETA, I see from your comments that your knowledge of PETA is quite limited (perhaps from what you read from their website). The fact is that they may be the People for the “Ethical” Treatment of Animals, however, they are FAR from being “ETHICAL” themselves. If their methods of defending their believes were totally straight and honest I’d probably be on their side. However, they are notorious for acting crooked, dishonest, rash, lewd, shameful, and wicked.
Examples: Throwing red paint on to KFC CEO David Novak (09/23/2003) ; Protesting nude (they almost always protest in immodest attire either by going almost entirely nude, painted or in bikinis. In all case totally prohibited by the Torah and violates the 7 mitzvas B’nei Noach.); They exploit the Holocaust by comparing the slaughter of animals to the slaughter of 6 million Jews; they at times have been caught distorting videos to advance their agenda; etc, etc…
To give them ANY credence is DEPLORABLE!
[NOTE: Those that know me know that I am very sensitive to animals. However, I have not lost my senses and will tell you without a shadow of a doubt that anyone that places animals on par with human being is one step away from exterminating people such as what happened in the Holocaust!]
yochi – thanks for your added comments. 🙂
Yochi said …
“They came for tours (like I did)..”
Wrong.
They were much more devious and more thorough. They sent people in undercover to work at Agri and took pictures. They didn’t take part in the 3 hour, Gilligan’s Island tour. They actually spent considerable time working for the company.
While PETA doesn’t oppose shechita in principle, in fact they do opppose the slaughter of animals and therefore their motives are at best questionable. That said, the videos are damning and when combined with other evidence, paint a sorry picture of what passed for “kosher” at Agriprocessor.
BTW, I wouldn’t bet my house on the possibility of Agri restarting on Thursday.
To C. Hall,
I doubt any immigration policy or law would be perfect, but of all the idiocy coming out of Washington, his sounded the most normal.
#22, I am not sure if acquiring legal immigration status has to do with one’s income, other than paying necessary expenses involved. But, again, we get into a circular argument that if a poor person cannot afford to wait or pay to immigrate, that they are justified in running past immigration law enforcement officers and begin their journey of tax free income, social services, education, medical care, fraudulent documents such as DL numbers with false names..and all the rest? Not including the problem of those sworn in to service who earn parnosa looking the other way. ..etc….etc…etc. Also, I am not sure how you equate “illegal” aliens with being mostly honest. They know fully how they are taking advantage of us. I dont think the Sodom case is a paradigm. There are countless other examples of being a mentch to other communities.
#23, I did preface my statement that while PETA or some of it’s members who may take a radical stance are not fully in line with our views, in my opinion, they are not an organization to be whitewashed as being off the hook.
To me, life seems to offer more and more shades of gray, as of late, than things being black and white.
veryinteresting – if you want to stand by PETA I can’t stop you, however, just keep in mind, they TRULY are “good Samaritans”! You’ll be in good company just like Bar Kochva was. 🙁
As far as your statement “life seems to offer more and more shades of grey…” That’s because you seem to be staining your “white” neshama with more and more goyisha shmutz.
My advise: Draw away from praising people like PETA and mikadash yourself by learning more Torah. Your talis will be whiter then. 🙂