The story of the intellectually disabled men who were found a few years back living in a disgusting firetrap while being paid next to nothing for doing the worst jobs in a turkey processing plant made headlines at the time. And the men were
supposed to collect significant amounts of money from the owners of Henry's Turkey Service:
Collecting the money secured in these federal judgments, though, proved difficult, as the officers of Henry’s Turkey Service transferred many of their assets to their adult children. Their former employees, now living in private homes, group homes and a nursing facility, never collected a cent.
Now, though, the men should get at least part of what they're owed from the bosses who exploited them so cruelly for decades, because the bosses' ongoing efforts to transfer money to their children to avoid paying what they owed have run into a snag:
Then, early last year, Mr. Canino learned of a financial transaction in the works that concerned a resolution of a property dispute in Texas. In effect, the transaction would have surreptitiously redirected proceeds from a land sale concerning Henry’s Turkey Service to the children of the company’s officers.
According to a news release issued by the employment commission, it and the United States attorney’s office in Fort Worth monitored what it called “a suspicious land deal” and a “secret side agreement.” Along the way, it said, federal officials found evidence of “a fraudulent transaction” and filed an emergency motion for court intervention, which was granted last week.
A lawyer who handled the land deal in question did not return a telephone call Thursday. Federal officials said that if the principals of Henry’s Turkey Service complied, the government would begin to distribute more than $850,000 to the men — an amount that also includes about $272,000 accumulated in other garnishments and liens against the company.
It's still not a lot of money for men who worked for this company for decades and were not only underpaid but put in unsafe, unsanitary living conditions. But it's something. It's also a reminder of how difficult it is to get justice for workers even in the most blatantly abusive cases.
Continue reading below the fold for more of the week's labor and education news.
A fair day's wage
Education
- Which colleges and universities are aiding upward mobility by educating low-income students?
- More on the deal that ended the Seattle teachers strike.
- How is this legal for an entity receiving public money?
String Theory effectively “rents” its building from itself, collecting $188,000 a year through the state’s Charter School Lease Reimbursement Program.
Much of this money is then put toward debt service. The amount of rental reimbursements issued to Philadelphia charter schools has skyrocketed in the last four years, as Santilli’s consulting and the need to pay interest to bondholders has also grown.
Reimbursements rose 79 percent — to $6.8 million annually — while the number of charter schools increased by just 20 percent, state records show. Only a fraction goes to schools that rent their buildings from unrelated owners.
The issue isn’t limited to Philadelphia, according to state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale, who is conducting a statewide review of charter leases.
“About half the charter schools we’ve audited basically have this circular arrangement where there’s an entity that owns the building and an entity that leases the building, and they’re connected,” he said.
- Privatization in action:
The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that property purchased by the for-profit charter management corporation White Hat using public funds belongs to White Hat, not the public.
I’m no lawyer, but this decision says to me that the schools’ stuff does not belong to the public, but to a private entrepreneur. I take that to be an acknowledgement that White Hat privatized the assets of the school. More evidence that charter schools are not public schools. If they were, their stuff purchased with public funds would belong to the public.
White Hat was sued by the boards of 10 of its charter schools, all of which have closed for poor performance.
“A charter school operator – not the schools themselves – own the classroom desks, computers and other equipment purchased with state-provided tax dollars, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled today.