One more non-story. Beth, you really are reaching here - it's clear that you don't really have a knowledge how employers work. If this employee was illegal but showed a reasonably real-looking SS card, then she would have been hired, particularly back in 1992 or whenever she was hired. The employer can only do what they can do.

It's too bad that your biases are showing so much that you feel the need to do no research on standard practices, how the government works, what tools employers had then to verify eligibility to work.

Again - I am a democrat and do not plan to vote for Gordon Smith. But even I do not agree with the blatant smearing that you are doing.

 

So why don't you get a law enforcement group and shut Smith down. Lose another bunch of jobs for Oregon. Employee fraud and it is Smith's fault. I think I am reading Mormon envy. Maybe penis envy. The guy provides a good market for farmers, and a place for people who don't go to Harvard to work. It must be a will run outfit, because it is still there, still working. I heard Smith at a Farm Bureau meeting a while back, and he said his direction to his company supervision was that cash is king, don't buy anything we don't absolutely need, watch costs, and try to keep as many people working as we can. We are in for tough times, and we have an obligation to the people who work for us to keep them as whole as possible.

So in a meeting where the press was not allowed, this is what he said to farmers. Of course he was campaigning. Of course he needs to lead and share his thoughts with farmers and food processors.

Fraudulent documents that can't be vetted by the employer have been the crux of the problem since the git-go. I am the only Anglo working for a Hispanic labor contractor. Casual farm labor is done by illegal aliens, except for some older people who got green cards in the last amnesty deal over 15 years ago. If you drink Pinot Noir wine made in Oregon, the grapes were picked by an illegal alien. You are supporting the very same situation Smith is in. You are the consumer and the producer has no where to get labor but from the labor contracting pool, and that is predominantly staffed by illegal aliens trying to make enough money to keep a family alive here and one in Mexico or some other Latin American country. They work for you for a day or a week and sometimes as long as a month, and then they are gone to somewhere else where there is work. The wine grape picking season is a week at best, here in Western Oregon. Where do you think you will find a few thousand people to pick grapes for a buck a bucket for two hours today, and maybe two hours tomorrow? And then a day here, and maybe two days there. It is not a living, a family wage job. It is stoop labor for a hours or a day, and then they don't want you around for another year. It is ugly work and ugly conditions for the contractor and the labor. At least the Smith people have long term jobs. Frozen sweet corn might not be as nifty as a bottle of Pinot Noir, but it is a whole lot better deal for the workers, legal or not, if fairness to humans is the judgement you are looking for.

 

Beth I'll say it again you are making an ass out of yourself and losing any credibilty you may have had.

The fact that the HR director of the company did not catch or care that this woman used 2 different names or numbers has nothing to do with Smith directly. Also the time frames that these horrible things happened in is the same time that all of you liberal nuts where welcomeing these people into the country and helping them beat the system.

Go find another dead horse to beat!!!

 

Maybe we should write in our vote for Mr. Hernadez for United States Senate. After all, he is responsible for legalizing his wife's access to her hard earned benefits. Prior to Mr. Hernandez action, Gordon Smith was just sending part of his payroll to the US treasury so it would be available to fund the bailout.

 

If no workers comp claim was filed, but it is a bona fide claim that the employer knew about, then maybe the claim could be filed now with retroactive benefits paid.