Thirteen years ago when I was Secretary of Labor, DeCoster agreed to pay a $2 million penalty (the most we could throw at him) for some of the most heinous workplace violations I’d seen. His workers had been forced to live in trailers infested with rats and handle manure and dead chickens with their bare hands. It was an agricultural sweatshop.
Several people in Maine told me the fine wouldn’t stop DeCoster. He’d just consider it a cost of doing business. Evidently they were right. DeCoster’s commercial egg business has a record that would make a repeat offender blush.
In 2003, DeCoster pleaded guilty to knowingly hiring undocumented immigrants (who don’t complain about unsafe working conditions, below-minimum-wage pay, and unsanitary facilities). DeCoster paid a record $2.1 million penalty for that one.
In the 1990s he was charged by Iowa authorities for violating state environmental laws governing the runoff of manure into rivers. He continued to violate environmental laws so often that the Iowa Supreme Court approved an order barring him from building more hog structures.
In 2002 the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission fined DeCoster’s operation $1.5 million for mistreating female workers. The charges included rape, sexual harassment, and other abuses.
Earlier this year, DeCoster paid another fine to settle state animal cruelty charges against his egg operations in Maine.
In other words, the current national salmonella outbreak is just the latest in a long series of DeCoster corporate crimes. He’s fostered a culture that disregards any law standing in the way of profits. Along the way, DeCoster has abused the environment, animals, his employees, and his customers.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
Corporate Rotten Eggs ☀
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kyubino reblogged this from azspot
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jhermann reblogged this from azspot and added:
Can we get a three-strikes rule for this type of shit? Put this fucker in prison. Extraordinary rendition may be called...
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powerllama reblogged this from azspot and added:
The larger a corporation grows, the less humanity it seems to have. They distance themselves further from the inhumane...
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jamielynnlife reblogged this from azspot and added:
In case anyone still wasn’t aware of the state of the food industry in America.
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