Burmese refugees fill meatpacking jobs

June 14, 2008, 12:01AM
Burmese refugees fill meatpacking jobs

By BETSY BLANEY Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press

CACTUS, Texas — Foreign-born workers have been the mainstay at a meatpacking plant in this small Panhandle town for decades.

When the plant opened in 1974, Vietnamese and Laotians filled many of the jobs. Then came workers from Mexico and Guatemala, many of them in the U.S. illegally.

Most left or were arrested after a 2006 immigration raid that took nearly 300 workers from the Swift & Co. plant.

Now a new group of foreign-born workers are employed at the plant, where starting pay begins at $12 an hour.

Since January about 450 Burmese refugees have arrived from places like Houston, Florida, New York and Indianapolis, lured by lower living costs, safe neighborhoods and jobs. More are on the way.

"They found a legal way to get a low-end work force," Moore County Judge Rowdy Rhoades said of the plant, which employs about 3000 workers and now operates as JBS Swift & Co. "These people take pride in their jobs."

A similar-sized group of Somalis answered Swift's ads last year.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids targeted six Swift plants across the U.S. in December 2006 hit Cactus' economy hard. Just a few months later a tornado leveled about half of the town's homes.

Officials at Greeley, Colo.-based JBS Swift said the company feels fortunate to provide the refugees good jobs.

"Our refugee employees are a vital part of our work force, helping us recover from the ICE raids when we were struggling to keep operations running," Jack Shandley, a company spokesman said in an e-mail. "The refugees are legally living and working in the United States."

The adjustment hasn't been easy, for either Moore County residents or the Burmese, whose war-torn Myanmar homeland was hit by a catastrophic cyclone killing thousands in May.

Many who fled settled near the Thai border before gaining refugee status, said Lori Bigham, a supervisor at Catholic Family Service in Amarillo, about 60 miles from Cactus and already home to a Burmese population.

The newest Burmese immigrants live in Cactus and Dumas, about 15 miles south of the plant.

Only a few speak English, and the language barrier has resulted in some confusion over how to obtain driver licenses or otherwise ease into their new lives.

At Moore County Hospital, translators provided by Bigham's agency have helped, as has a telephonic interpreter service, said chief executive officer Jeff Turner.

The staff also has received training in cultural issues; some of the Burmese are Muslim.

"We have found that those issues have not prevented us from giving care," he said.

The Dumas school district hired two Burmese who speak English to help the 107 Burmese students — one of them a 20-year-old woman — who have enrolled in local schools. Swift officials have told the district that more will enroll in the fall, district superintendent Larry Appel said.

The district also purchased software and will conduct an intensive summer program to help students learn English. Appel said many Burmese are learning Spanish as well.

"It's a great tribute to their desire to learn," he said. "They've not been a problem to us. A challenge, yes. A problem no."

There have been differences, though.

"For the most part they've not been accustomed to attending school for a full school day," he said. "It's more an adjustment. It's certainly not a behavioral issue."

There has been both joy and heartache since the Burmese arrived. In mid-May, a man, 41, and a woman, 23, were killed when the van in which they were riding with eight other Burmese rolled several times on U.S. 87 just south of Dumas.

Most were ejected and the language barrier impeded rescue efforts, Moore County Attorney Scott Higginbotham said.

"We can't get past, 'who are you and are you hurt,'" he said. "I'm grateful they're here because we're a nation of immigrants. The problem I have ... is we are ill-equipped to take care of these people."

The two communities are coming together to help. Elected officials from Dumas, Cactus and Moore County, and others from churches and social services agencies meet regularly.

Stan Corbin, international mission pastor at First Baptist Church in Dumas, said he's proud of his town and his county for stepping up to help the group.

"They're anxious to be independent but they're not there yet," he said. "Right now they're dependent on citizens to help them."

Bigham, the Catholic Family Service supervisor, said the number of Burmese moving here from other U.S. cities is greater than many expected.

"It usually doesn't happen with such large number in a short amount of time," she said.

But complaints are few in Cactus. The Burmese walk many places and because men wear dress-like garb, heads turn, Cactus City Manager Steve Schmidt-Witcher said.

"It's rather unusual to see a man walking with a skirt," he said.

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