FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 13, 2006

CONTACT:

press@ufcw.org

ICE TERRORIZING IMMIGRANT WORKERS BECAUSE OF FAILED U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY
(Washington, D.C.) - United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW)
members working in Swift and Company meatpacking plants are reporting
that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents marched into
plants Thursday morning with military weapons, herding, segregating,
and terrorizing workers. Plants and plant gates were locked down.

"The display of force by ICE agents is totally outrageous," said Mark
Lauritsen, International Vice President and Director of the Food
Processing, Packing, and Manufacturing division of the UFCW. "We
believe they are victims of wholesale violations of worker rights. In
effect, ICE is criminalizing people for going to work."

Families have been ripped apart leaving traumatized children stranded
at school waiting to be picked up. In some cases, their parents are
being transported to detention centers in distant cities and denied
the opportunity to call anyone to make arrangements for their
children. Workers at the Swift plant in Grand Island, Neb., have been
bussed to Camp Dodge, Iowa, six hours away from their families, with
no guarantee of return transportation.

Workers at the Greeley Colo., plant reported that gun shots were
fired. Representatives and attorneys with the UFCW, who have standing
to represent these workers, have been denied access to the detained
workers.

"The workers caught in this vice are victims of a failed immigration
system. It's time for the federal government to stop victimizing
workers and reform our immigration system," said Lauritsen. "The last
do-nothing Congress failed to produce its promised immigration reform
before recess. The result is that children have been orphaned, left to
sleep in strange beds and uncertain about their holiday or their
future. Worksite raids with armed agents are not the answer to the
nationwide call for immigration reform. America deserves a humane,
systematic and comprehensive immigration policy immediately."

UFCW local unions are working tirelessly to contact family members to
protect minor children. Union representatives have been denied access
to the facilities to represent workers. UFCW local unions are putting
in place a system to aid the families, contacting relatives of
children, setting up aid funds to supply holiday gifts and whatever
long-term assistance they may need.

The UFCW represents approximately 10,000 workers at the five Swift and
Company plants.
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The UFCW represents 1.4 million workers, 250,000 in the meatpacking
and poultry industries. UFCW members also work in the health care,
garment, chemical, distillery and retail industries.