NEWS
Union: Accusal entirely wrong
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by Pedro Oliveira Jr.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
The Wisconsin Union denied two employees' accusations of mistreating illegal immigrant workers Wednesday.
According to an opinion column published in The Badger Herald Wednesday, a former Union employee identified only as "Jorge" said he was an undocumented worker and had worked at both Memorial Union and Union South for nearly two years.
Jorge said he developed asthma and a hernia while working at the Union as a temporary custodian, and in both incidents was advised to disregard medical instructions by Chris Acker, a custodial services supervisor at Memorial Union, who allegedly said "You're just making stuff up. You just want to take days off."
Jorge also said there are nearly 25 to 30 illegal employees working temporary custodial third shifts at both Memorial Union and Union South.
Wisconsin Union Communications Director Marc Kennedy, however, said in an interview Wednesday that Jorge's story is "entirely inaccurate," and added the Union always checks the validity of social security cards and other documents presented when employing its workers.
"You have to be documented to work for the university," Kennedy said. "If you don't have a social security number, you don't get paid."
According to Kennedy, the human resources department at the Union runs prospective employees' numbers through the Social Security Administration, and someone using an illegitimate number — like a dead person's social security number, for example — would cause human resources officials to be informed by SSA.
Under Union Human Resources procedures, new employees are required to present a Social Security card and driver's license, which can be substituted by birth certificate or passport.
Kennedy said together Memorial Union and Union South only employ about 13 third-shift custodians, and only a few of them are temporary workers.
"The one reason why we won't make them full-time employees is that Union South is coming down in a year and a half," Kennedy said.
According to Kennedy, Union staff have an idea of Jorge's real identity, and added though he could not legally comment on his work history, there is something suspicious about the veracity of his testimony.
"Hypothetically, if you look at the situation at face value, here's someone who's admittedly talking about having employment issues and worker's compensation issues making allegations like these," Kennedy said. "It could raise a red flag."
Despite Jorge's claims to be an illegal worker, Kennedy said the former employee's documents have been checked and there has been no indication to believe he was illegally employed by the Union.
Tomas Garcia, Union human resources director, was unavailable for comment Wednesday afternoon. Acker declined comment when contacted by The Badger Herald Wednesday evening.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 8:38am):
Ohhhhh, so after some real reporting the Herald got both sides of the story. Crazy how that works ain't it?
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 9:24am):
Oh what a total crock, Marc. I totally believe the Herald's crack news team -- er, um, opinion team I guess -- on this one; the anonymous evidence is astounding. Face the unattributed facts and treat those illegal workers you might have a little better.
My friend who also asked to remain anonymous, let's call him "George," is also outraged. "George" also claims to be a third-shift illegal Union worker, and he has seen plenty of mistreatment. Last week they humiliated him by asking what the drag coefficient of an F16 fighter was, and he had no idea.
Marc, how can you possibly keep ignoring this mountain of evidence? Time to clean house!
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 9:42am):
way to check your facts...the second time around.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 11:26am):
I'm not sure why you think these are facts just because they come from UW officials. Obviously the only people that know the true story are "Jorge" and his supervisors. The op-ed piece did not pretent to be a factual article. It was simply bringing to light a possible issue... Exactly what an opinion column is intended for.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 11:54am):
Just because the Union presented their side doesn't mean it's the correct one. I'm more inclined to believe the worker in this case, considering that it's not an isolated incident, and because the Union has a stake in hiding these claims.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 12:59pm):
For what it is worth, I AM a union employee (building services, too) and I have never, in all my months of working seen any mistreatment of workers, even when I've worked the third shift. It's a pretty small crew and everyone knows each other, I think I would have at least heard something about it, that is, if it were happening.
I'm glad the Badger Herald actually took the time to get some real facts for this story. Just sad it took yesterday's completely unfounded opinion piece to do it. I wonder how many people will walk away from this 'scandal' still thinking the union enslaves 30 illegal immigrants?
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 2:25pm):
@11:26--Just because it was an op-ed article does not give the writer any reason to use untrue facts. You can't make assumptions and go write a huge story based on them.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 2:38pm):
Why is it that when the Union says there are no illegal immigrants working there, that's "fact," but when illegal immigrants working there say they're working there, they're lying?
Seriously, what did you think the Union was going to do, admit that they broke the law?
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 3:35pm):
"they broke the law?"
The law doesn't really allow for or provide the means to ensure that someone is a legal resident. False ID must be accepted at face value.
Anonymous (November 8, 2007 @ 5:24pm):
@2:25--Union stooge. How many wuddies are trolling BH today to do damage control?
Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 10:39pm):
ok, i'm a little behind on this post, but i just wanted to mention that the claim made above that union policy requires a social security card and drivers license/birth certificate/passport to become employed is completely false. i became an employee of the union within the last year and was never asked for a single form of proof of citizenship other than my ss#, and i didn't even have to show my card. but maybe that's just because i don't "look" like an illegal.....
are they not really checking like they claim to be, or are they just discriminating?
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