Posted on 12/15/2006 1:39:13 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WICHITA, Kan. - When hordes of police and immigration officials stormed meatpacking plants in six states this week, the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims.
Consumers and the industry itself may be feeling the repercussions in a shortage of meatpackers, higher wage costs and, ultimately, higher prices for the beef that lands on America's tables at home and in restaurants.
Some analysts see the current emphasis on enforcement in the meatpacking industry as the precursor to getting an immigration bill through Congress — by demonstrating the government's capability to enforce laws at the work site.
"The meatpacking industry has become dependent on an unauthorized labor force, and it is not good government to destroy an entire industry. In some way, there is going to be a meeting of the minds," said Mark Reed, a former immigration regional director who now runs his own consulting business, Border Management Strategies, in Tucson, Ariz.
Every labor-intensive industry — the hotel industry, the construction industry, agriculture — will be similarly impacted, he said.
"It just happens the meatpacking industry is in the cross hairs right now," Reed said.
Continued massive immigration raids would cut cattle prices paid to cattle feeders and cattle producers while raising the cost of beef for consumers, said James Mintert, an agricultural economist at Kansas State University.
It would also reduce the available labor supply — putting the U.S. meatpacking industry in a position more comparable to the Canadian slaughterhouses, which have much higher labor costs because they have less access to cheap immigrant labor.
"You are going to end up paying higher wages," Mintert said.
Swift & Co. said its meatpacking plants were running at reduced levels a day after nearly 1,300 employees were arrested in a massive immigration sweep that temporarily halted operations.
Cattle slaughter numbers had been running about the same as a year ago the day prior to arrests. The immigration sweep on Tuesday cut the nation's daily cattle slaughter numbers by 9 percent, Mintert said.
Still, Mintert cited preliminary data from the Agriculture Department's federally inspected slaughter numbers showing that by Wednesday slaughter numbers nationwide had recovered and were up a fraction from a week ago as other meatpackers picked up the slack at Swift's plants.
"It looks like what took place had limited impact — we had a one-day impact," he said.
Swift said in a written statement that its operations had resumed at reduced levels on Wednesday at the plants in Greeley, Colorado; Grand Island, Nebraska; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minnesota. Production was expected to be below normal in the short term, but the company did not provide further details and did not return a call for comment.
At Tyson Foods Inc., the world's largest meat processor, the raids did not result in any significant change to the company's livestock buying efforts, and plants were operating normally at expected production levels, said Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson.
It is uncertain how much impact increased immigration enforcement at the nation's slaughter plants would have on consumer meat prices.
"If the price of meat goes up a little bit, so what? There is nothing as expensive as cheap labor because we pay for this cheap labor in other ways — higher insurance costs, higher taxes," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
He cited a study his group did a few years ago looking at what impact the loss of illegal immigrant labor would have on consumer prices for fresh fruits and vegetables, a far more immigrant-intensive business than meatpackers.
Their study found that in summer the retail price of fresh fruit would go up 6 percent for the first couple of years, and then settle to about 4 percent higher, Krikorian said.
The last time a major shift in the nation's meatpacking industry occurred was in the 1960s and 1970s when the industry shifted away from the urban areas in the Midwest and located to the Great Plains, where they drew more on immigrant labor.
During the 60s and 70s meatpacking wages were relatively higher than at manufacturing plants, running about 14 to 18 percent above manufacturing wages at that time, Mintert said. By 2002, meatpacking wages were running 25 percent below manufacturing wages.
Accompanying the wage drop was the decline of unions in the plants. In the late 1970s, about 45 percent of the meatpacking industry was unionized. By the late 1980s, that had dropped to 21 percent as more immigrants took jobs in the industry, Mintert said.
Kevin Good, a senior market analyst for Cattle Fax in Denver, said any disruption to the cattle market from the raids will be short term as other plants absorb the excess cattle. He said beef prices so far have been relatively flat.
"It is part of doing business," Good said of the raids.
If labor costs of meat processing rise, that will create an incentive to further automate the process reducing the need for human labor. There's no downside to this as I see it.
I should eat less meat anyway.....
Beef producers employing illegal invaders and complaining when they get caught!????
BOYCOT BEEF!!!
Eat fish, chicken, or some other protein source.
They expect SYMPATHY???
They can go screw themselves - s.o.b.s.
"Kick the illegals out and make the agriculture industry pay a living wage to American workers.
Yes, prices will go up but we will be supporting Americans and not Mexicans. Aren't we supposed to be taking care of our own???"
Thats exactly what American autoworkers said, not many of them left working.
Do you think meat can't be imported ? If the butchered beef can be shipped around the country from Texas it can be shipped from Mexico. Ever heard of NAFTA ?
Raising costs on a product from a mfg. or producer isn't a zero sum game. That cost is expanded at every level of exchange until it get to your wallet.
Raise the cost of beef 20 cents a pound for the slaughter house and it may add $1 a pound on the beef on your table.
"If beef goes higher, fish becomes a good substitute. Little waste on fish"
Not much waste on hamburger either.
What percentage of the price is the human labor to get a pound of ribeye steak to my dinner table? Would it be five percent? Now double it, how much is that for a ten dollar steak? Not that much more, and worth every penny to keep illegals out.
Well, two can play that game. I don't need to eat their meat, lettuce, whatever. I'm self reliant and won't be blackmailed into buying anyone's product. I still have that power. So do you. Let their meat rot.
I doubt your Big Mac price will be affected. Is any of that meat from America?
"Do you think meat can't be imported ? If the butchered beef can be shipped around the country from Texas it can be shipped from Mexico. Ever heard of NAFTA?"
Bump
How on earth did we Americans ever manage to get anything done over the last 40 or so years without illegals?
/sarcasm off
If you look a bit deeper into the meatpacking industry you'll notice how wages went DOWN with the influx of illegals. Prior to the influx of illegals, American citizens did the work for a few bucks more per hour.
The same can be said of all the trades.
I'm not all that fond of fish period, but all the guys on the Lake Powell board swear by how good they are, and there is so many there it doesn't have a limit, they WANT people to catch them.
I'm willing to pay more for meat packed by legal immigrants or citizens of the good old U.S.
Fish is cheaper where you live? Here in Kansas, it's more expensive.
They keep on about the "needed" labor, while completely ignoring the other, much larger costs to America. Throw the illegals out already.
Exactly! And besides, 15 years ago when meatpackers were making $19 an hour I was paying a heap lot less for meat than I am now when the avg wage is $9 an hour. Why is that? The more expensive the labor, the cheaper the meat? Obviously not, either someone's making a killing or feed prices have gone up that much but all in all, I don't believe it's the labor that's got the meat prices so high.
Well, tell ya what, hot rod, I believe as you do. For a $17.50 permit, last week, I went out and killed enough deer to fill my freezer. I wont buy beef at any price, because I have a freezer full of venison. I raise cattle, but I wont be blackmailed at the meat counter. If I run out of venison, I will just kill one of my own steers and butcher it the same as I do wild game. No problem.
I would gladly pay $10 for a pound of hamburger.
We probably already do in the form of taxes we pay to support the social services these leeches use.
When hordes of police and immigration officials stormed meatpacking plants in six states this week, the illegal workers arrested may not have been the only victims.
Dear AP,
Illegal aliens using fake papers are criminals. Criminals are NOT victims. Companies that knowingly hire them are criminals too.
kalee
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