Making Our Politicians Accountable (Barf Alert)

On Tuesday, November 8th, Rosa Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra – two undocumented workers who live and work in northwest Chicago – stepped forward to lodge a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor against Oberweis Dairy. They were employed cleaning Oberweis Ice Cream Stores and paid less than half of the hourly minimum wage in Illinois. In his Senate race last year, Jim Oberweis exploited immigrants by demagoging their illegal status for cheap votes. Now, he exploits them for cheap labor.

Read about the full story and see the video of Rosa and Jorge cleaning an Oberweis store here.

Read about the full story and see the video of Rosa and Jorge cleaning an Oberweis store here. http://www.icirr.org/

Wednesday, November 9th 2005

Press Release

Activists: Deport illegal aliens Rosa Ramirez, Jorge Ibarra

The Illinois Minuteman Project is calling on the Chicago office U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to immediately arrest Rosa Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra, who have admitted to being in this country in violation of our immigration laws. They are burglars who have broken into this country and have stolen jobs and wages from native-born workers.

On Nov. 8 ICE officials told Channel 2's Mike Flannery that Ramirez and Ibarra are at the bottom of their priority list, and we find that irresponsible and unacceptable. We ask that concerned citizens call ICE's Chicago office at 312-385-1701 and ask the Field Office Director to enforce our immigration laws rather than offering weak excuse for why they can't.

We also condemn the actions of Father Brendan Curran and Joshua Hoyt of the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights for their role in aiding and abetting illegal aliens, which is a violation of federal law.

The Minuteman Project is one of many multi-ethnic groups of American volunteers nationally who support strict enforcement of our immigration laws.

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For more information, contact Rosanna Pulido, Founder, Illinois Minuteman Project,

Cell 773-319-0976, E-Mail: Illinoisminutemanproject@yahoo.com

Media Availability 7-7:30pm Thursday Nov 10th 2005

Illinois Minuteman Meeting (Fox Valley Chapter)

American Legion Hall

820 N Liberty (Lower Level)

Elgin, Illinois

Here is the complete story from the Oberweis campaign. Judge for yourself who is telling the truth. I wouldn'rt be suprised to see the fingerprints of another gubernatorial campaign all over this one.

On Tuesday morning, November 8th, my campaign staff began receiving calls informing us that the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) would be holding a 10:00 A.M. press conference alleging Oberweis Dairy underpaid two employees in May of this year. By 7:30 a.m., I instructed my management team to investigate these allegations before we even knew the details of the allegations.

Additionally, I asked Tony Crement, the Oberweis Dairy Employment Law Attorney, and Joe Wiegand, my Campaign Manager, to attend the press conference to gather facts.

I'm familiar with the ICIRR and Josh Hoyt, their Executive Director. In the past, I visited with Josh and individuals that receive services from ICIRR, and I was impressed by many of the good things that ICIRR is doing.

We enjoyed the company of an ICIRR employee at our own campaign announcement April 14 in Chicago. At the time ICIRR praised our earlier meeting, but warned that they "would be watching."

Yesterday, Mr. Crement and Mr. Wiegand were barred from attending the ICIRR press conference. Later in the day, members of the press shared documents with me relating to ICIRR's allegations.

According to ICIRR, they and the Chicago Workers' Collaborative (CWC) filed a complaint with the Illinois Department of Labor "on behalf of undocumented workers Jorge Ibarra and Rosa Ramirez." A copy of the complaint, dated November 2, 2005, names Oberweis Dairy as the employer. To date, Oberweis Dairy has received no official notice of this complaint.

The complaint is totally baseless. Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez have never been employees of Oberweis Dairy.

Elsewhere, ICIRR alleged that Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez were employees of Patmar Janitorial Services, one of three outside contractors that clean Oberweis Dairy Ice Cream Stores. According to the President of Patmar, Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez were not employees of his company either.

Last night, Mr. Crement and I discussed this complaint and its particulars at length with the President of Patmar and learned the real facts. What happened in May is the following:

Eduardo Martinez, a Patmar employee, had been assigned to clean the Schaumburg, Arlington Heights and Hoffman Estates stores.

Mr. Martinez, an employee of Patmar, without the knowledge of company officials, got Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez to do the work for him and apparently paid them out of his pocket. Patmar, sometime during the month of May, discovered these facts when its President drove by the store and found two strangers in our store during the overnight hours. Expecting to find his employee, he was surprised to find Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez cleaning the store. When Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez explained that Mr. Martinez had hired them, the President informed Mr. Ibarra and Ms. Ramirez that they could not continue performing this work for Mr. Martinez. The President of Patmar met with Mr. Martinez and retrieved the stores keys from him, and from that day forward Mr. Martinez no longer worked for Patmar.

Some television news viewers may have seen video of Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra cleaning windows and floors at an Oberweis Dairy Ice Cream Store. The video was reportedly shot in May by the Chicago Workers Collaborative. According to Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra, they have had a working relationship with the CWC since January when the organization assisted the pair to sue another cleaning service employer. If we are able to contact Mr. Martinez, we will inquire as to whether he sought the services of Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra, or, if by chance, Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra approached Mr. Martinez to propose the unauthorized work on Oberweis property.

If Mr. Hoyt, ICIRR or the Chicago Worker's Collaborative had contacted me or Oberweis Dairy in May or at any time after and brought this issue to our attention, I would have engaged the situation, determined to fix any problems and seek a just and fair outcome. I have called and written Mr. Hoyt expressing my disappointment. I'll leave it to others to judge the motivation and timing of the ICIRR press conference.

Yesterday, I told the media that I wanted to get the facts. As a businessman and a family man, the Oberweis name and the integrity of the dairy that carries that name are very important to me. It's important to the over 1,000 employees of Oberweis Dairy and their families. It's important to the employees of over 1,000 companies that contract to provide services or products to our dairy.

At Oberweis Dairy, we have expectations regarding the timely communication of honest and accurate information. Our management team has decided that in the case of Patmar, the company failed to provide timely and accurate information to us that two unauthorized individuals were in one of our stores. We can only assume that they had the key to our store since store cleanings occur well after the store is closed in the early morning hours. Dairy management believes that the President, as an officer of Patmar and Mr. Martinez, as an employee of Patmar, failed to execute their responsibilities to Oberweis Dairy. As of today, we are terminating their cleaning contract for their failure to notify us that two unauthorized individuals were allowed into our stores without our knowledge. We do believe Patmar's President when he told us that this occurred totally without his knowledge and that he ended it as soon as he became aware of the situation. This entire situation appears to be one individual taking advantage of two undocumented workers without the knowledge of Oberweis Dairy or Patmar.

I will continue to seek the facts as they relate to Ms. Ramirez and Mr. Ibarra. I will continue to have tremendous pride in the Oberweis Dairy and the people of all races, religions, and nationalities who help us to deliver the world's best milk and ice cream products.

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