The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union wants a federal judge to stop immigration officials from conducting what the union calls illegal workplace raids.
A lawsuit to be filed today in U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, alleges that agents unlawfully detained workers and violated their constitutional rights during raids of six Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in December. The lawsuit also demands that the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pay damages to workers.
ICE officials investigating identity theft arrested 1,297 workers at the plants, but union officials have said more than 12,000 workers were detained against their will during the operation. The plants raided were in Greeley; Cactus, Texas; Grand Island, Neb.; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.
The raid in Greeley resulted in 261 worker arrests. Swift said in January that the upheaval and lost productivity caused by the raids cost the company an estimated $30 million.
Brazilian firm JBS SA acquired Swift from a private-equity firm for about $1.5 billion in July. The purchase made JBS the world’s largest beef processor.
Union president Joseph Hansen planned to formally announce the suit at a news conference today in Washington and to complain that workers who weren’t accused of breaking any laws were handcuffed, held for hours and denied access to phones, bathrooms, legal counsel and their families.
