Associated Press

Raids could force meatpackers to raise worker pay

An Immigration raid and legal action have left a northeast Iowa kosher slaughterhouse reeling, but they’re not the reason the plant has struggled to remain open. — Instead, a company that once was the nation’s largest provider of kosher meat has crumbled largely due to a simple problem: an inability to hire enough workers…

It’s a problem that could increasingly face meatpackers across the country if Immigration agents continue to conduct mass raids that lead to staffing shortages. Unless the incoming Obama administration stops such raids, companies could be left choosing between two risky alternatives: hire illegal workers and chance a raid or increase salaries to attract and retain legal workers but at cost of higher consumer prices…

HERE and pass is around