Those named in the court documents are:

• Abraham Aaron Rubashkin — principal owner and president of Agriprocessors, Inc.
• Sholom M. Rubashkin — Son of Aaron, manager of the slaughtering and meat packing plant at Postville and a company officer.
• Elizabeth Billmeyer — human resources manager of Agriprocessors, Inc. and a resident of Postville.
• Laura Althouse — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.
• Karina Freund — management employee in the human resources department at Agriprocessors in Postville.

A total of 9,311 child labor violations, involving 32 minors under the age of 18, are included in the court documents. Seven of the 32 minors were under the age of 16. The alleged violations range from September 2007 to May 12 of this year — the date of the massive federal immigration raid on the plant. All violations are simple misdemeanors, each punishable by up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of $65 to $625.

An initial appearance has been scheduled before Iowa District Court Judge John Bauercamper for Sept. 17 in Allamakee County.

From the documents filed with the court:

“During the period of Sept. 9, 2007, through May 12, 2008, the persons as listed as employee-victims in the attached Complaint were employed and permitted to work at Agriprocessors’ slaughtering and meat packing establishment. All were under eighteen years of age on each of the dates listed. Throughout their employment these children were exposed to dangerous and/or poisonous chemicals, including, but not limited to, dry ice and chlorine solutions. Several of these employee-victims were also under sixteen years of age during the dates for which they are identified as such in the Complaint. Throughout their employment, these children, while under sixteen years of age, were employed in the operation of or tending of power-driven machinery, including, but not limited to, conveyor belts, meat grinders, circular saws, power washers, and power shears.”

The court documents also enumerate more than 1,500 violations relating to hours worked, including employee-victims under 16 who worked more than eight hours on specified days, and more than 40 hours in specified weeks. According to the affadavit, records indicate that there were instances of children under the age of 16 working before 7 a.m. and after 7 p.m. and, while school was in session, working more than four hours in a day and more than 28 hours in a week.

The Iowa Attorney General found that “all of the named individual defendants possessed shared knowledge that Agriprocessors employed undocumented aliens” and “that many of those workers were minors.”

Chaim Abrahams, plant manager at Agriprocessors, vehemently refutes the charges.

The breakdown of the charges are as follows:

• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(9) — (“No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations in or about slaughtering and meat packing establishments and rendering plants.”
• 3,857 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.8(19) — “No person under 18 years of age shall be employed or permitted to work with or without compensation at any of the following occupations or business establishments: … Occupations involving exposure to lead fumes or its compounds, or to dangerous or poisonous dyes or chemicals.”
• 790 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.6(6) — “Persons 14 and 15 years of age may not be employed in: … Operation or tending of hoisting apparatus or of any power-driven machinery, other than office machines and machines in retail, food service, and gasoline service establishments which are specified in section 92.”
• 677 violations of Iowa Code, section 92.7 — “A person under 16 years of age shall not be employed with or without compensation, except as provided in sections 92.2 and 92.3, before the hour of 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., except during the period from June 1 through Labor Day when the hours may be extended to nine p.m.  If such person is employed for a period of five hours or more each day, an intermission of not less than 30 minutes shall be given.  Such a person shall not be employed for more than eight hours in one day, exclusive of intermission, and shall not be employed for more than 40 hours in one week.  The hours of work of persons under 16 years of age employed outside school hours shall not exceed four in one day or 28 in one week while school is in session.”

Menachem Lubinsky, president of marketing consulting company Lubicom and spokesman for Agriprocessors, released a public statement Wednesday afternoon to outline what the meatpacking plant and its management has done in relation to the child labor investigation.

“Agriprocessors’ published ‘job orders’ — notices seeking applicants for open positions — always specify that applicants must be at least 18 years old,” he said. “It has been and always will be our policy never to hire underage workers. Applicants sometimes falsify their ages in order to gain employment.”

Lubinsky added that four women were fired in 2007 when the companies human resources department discovered the employees had falsified their birth dates.

“The Iowa Labor Commissioner initiated an investigation into child labor allegations in January 2008, with a letter to Agri,” Lubinsky said. “Agri cooperated in the investigation and responded promptly, explaining its hiring procedure and stating that, to its knowledge, no minors were then employed at the plant. The Labor Commisser’s Office replied with a request for more detailed information from Agri, and the requested data was supplied 10 days later.”

Lubinsky said that the Iowa Division of Labor conducted an unannounced on-site inspection of the plant on April 3.

“The team walked throughout the facility, viewing the workforce and even questioning certain employees, and identified no minors working at the plant,” he said. “Nonetheless, two weeks later, a government attorney told Agri that the government believed that some Agri employees were underage. Agri asked explicitly that these workers be identified, so that their employment could be terminated. The request was rejected.

“The commissioner’s attorney stated that, before releasing names, she wanted to review Agri’s records to ensure the individuals in question previously worked or are currently working at Agri.”

According to Lubinsky, plant management and staff from the Iowa Division of Labor were scheduled to review employee records on May 21. On May 12, the plant was the site of the nation’s largest single-location immigration raid. A total of 389 workers were detained, nearly all from Guatemala and Mexico.

“On May 12, before that review occurred and before the commissioner identified the supposed underage workers of which he was aware, [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] conducted its raid at Postville and arrested persons who claim to be underage and who admit to having obtained employment with false documents,” Lubinsky said.

“Nothwithstanding the leisurely pace of its investigation, the inability of even the government’s expert to identify any employees in the plant as minors, and the refusal to disclose the identities of any employees who the Labor Commissioner believed to be employed in violation of child labor laws, the commissioner has now issued an inflammatory press release alleging that there were ‘57 cases’ and ‘egregious violations.’ Agri categorically denies the suggestion that it knowingly hired or retained minors as employees and it protests the issuance of a press release that has patently been motivated by a desire to ride the crest of the wave of current public opinion adverse to Agri.”

On Tuesday, the Iowa Division of Labor announced that an investigation into possible child labor violations at the Agriprocessors plant was complete and that the findings — 57 cases that each have multiple child labor violations — were turned over the Iowa Attorney General’s Office for prosecution. Commissioner Dave Neil described the violations as “egregious” and encouraged criminal prosecution to the fullest extent of the law.

Eric Tabor, chief of staff in the Attorney General’s Office, refused to provide any specifics in relation to the case, including the range of fines and/or punishment associated with the alleged offenses.

Kerry Koonce, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Division of Labor, said in a telephone interview on Tuesday that the violations are considered misdemeanor offenses and are carried out against the company, not the company’s individual members of management. She added that the Iowa Attorney General’s Office would make the final determination as to the charges, if any, and the final verdict in the case will determine the penalty.

“They can go back 12 months from the date the investigation was complete and passed to prosecutors,” she said. “In Iowa, the rule of the thumb is roughly $50 per day, per instance.”

The Iowa Division of Labor is continuing to investigate Agriprocessors for general wage violations.

“I’m appalled by what appears to be blatant and widespread violations of Iowa’s child labor laws at Agriprocessors,” Braley said this evening in a prepared statement. “I commend Labor Commissioner Neil for pursuing this investigation and I trust that Attorney General [Tom] Miller will accept his recommendation to ‘prosecute these violations to the fullest extent of the law.’”

The investigation by the Iowa Division of Labor resulted in 57 cases being passed to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office for possible prosecution. Braley has been a strong and public voice for several months, pushing for the continuation of investigations into safety, child labor, environmental and immigration violations at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville. He most recently sent letters to several federal agencies to learn how and if the agencies were cooperating to ensure investigations launched prior to the May 12 immigration raid at the plant would continue.

The first portion of an investigation into possible child labor violations at Agriprocessors in Postville is closed, and findings have been turned over the Iowa Attorney General for prosecution.

The Iowa Labor Commissioner’s Office said the investigation was “intensive” and produced 57 cases that each have multiple child labor violations. A second arm of the investigation as well as an investigation into general wage violations remain ongoing and may lead to additional charges.

“The investigation brings to light egregious violations of virtually every aspect of Iowa’s child labor laws,” said Iowa Labor Commissioner Dave Neil. “It is my recommendation that the Attorney General’s Office prosecute these violations to the fullest extent of the law.”

Investigators found that minors worked in prohibited occupations, that improper work permits were obtained, that minors were exposed to hazardous chemicals and prohibited equipment and that the hours minors were required to work exceeded what was allowed.

In a statement released this afternoon by Agriprocessors spokesman Menachem Lubinsky expressed dismay.

“Agriprocessors is at a loss to understand the Iowa Labor Commissioner’s referral and press release of today on the issue of alleged child labor at Agriprocessors. As the government knows, it is Agriprocessors’ policy not to hire underage workers, and to terminate any employees who are determined to be under 18 years of age. In fact, in 2007, Agriprocessors terminated four employees whom it determined were underage and had provided false documents in order to obtain employment.

“The Company has cooperated with the government throughout its investigation, providing documents and opening its plant and its records to government inspection. In early 2008, government inspectors came to the Postville plant, looked for underage workers, identified two youthful looking employees for further investigation, investigated their background and ultimately allowed the employees to return to work. The company allowed the Iowa Department of Labor to tour the plant and interview any employee they saw fit. They toured every department in the plant and interviewed any worker they wanted and found no minors. Agriprocessors was told that the Department’s group consisted of five people, one of which one was an expert in identifying minors. At no time did the government identify to the company any violations.

“When the government told Agriprocessors in April 2008 that it knew that underage employees were working at the Postville plant, Agriprocessors repeatedly requested that the government identify those workers so that the company could terminate them. The Iowa Labor Commissioner’s Office refused. As a result of the government’s decision, apparently those children may have continued to work at the plant and presumably at least some were arrested in the May 12 ICE enforcement action.

“The government now has seen fit to issue a press release alleging child labor law violations. The government’s press release does not state that the company knowingly hired underage workers. The company asks the public to keep an open mind and wait for the evidence before making any judgments about these, or any other, allegations.”

Typically, child labor investigations are prosecuted by the county attorney. In this case, however, the Allamakee County Attorney’s Office told the state agency to give the case directly to the Iowa Attorney General.

Eric J. Tabor, chief of staff in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, refused to go into specifics in relation to the case, including the minimum and maximum fines and punishment allowable by law. Instead, he provided the following statement:

“The Attorney General’s Office is serving in the role of prosecutor, at the request of the Allamakee County Attorney. We are cooperating with the Iowa State Division of Labor and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which are investigating in this matter. We will enforce Iowa criminal law if there have been violations of the law.”

Tabor concluded by stating that charges are “merely an accusation and any potential defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

Agriprocessors, the nation’s largest kosher meatpacking plant and Postville’s largest employer, was the site of the largest single-site immigration enforcement event in national history. In total, 389 workers were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Most of the detainees faced criminal charges related to identify theft and were quickly convicted through plea bargains. After being charged criminally, six of the defendants were discovered to be juveniles. In addition, 23 juveniles detained during the raid were released to responsible adults or specialists.