Nativo faces seven felony charges by the Los Angeles District Attorney, Steve Cooley, that include: fraudulent voter registration, fraudulent document filing, perjury, and fraudulent voting. On July 8th, 2009, Nativo declared himself “NOT GUILTY” to a judge during his arraignment. These charges are based on allegations that he used a business address (of his organization) to register to vote and vote in an election, while allegedly residing at a different location. The period in question was January 2006 to March 2008. He voted on one single occasion, and never in multiple jurisdictions. The California Secretary of State investigated the case for one-and-a-half years, while the department could have decided to take administrative action, instead turned it over to the Los Angeles County District Attorney for prosecution.

These charges could have been resolved administratively due to their technical nature. Instead, they are being pursued as felony charges. It is a clear example of selective prosecution. Where others have never been prosecuted for similar infractions, Nativo has been targeted at a time that he has been vocal against the broken immigration system and stood up in defense of the workers at Overhill Farms.

An arrest warrant was issued on June 22, 2009; however, false reports of his arrest have painted a flawed image of the actual nature of these charges and the events that followed. Nativo in fact presented himself to a judge at the Los Angeles Superior Court on June 24, 2009, the day before reports were made, and allowed to leave on his own recognizance.

Nativo has supported the workers at Overhill Farms that stood up against their unfair boss have also been targeted by a lawsuit of the company. On July 1, 2009, a civil lawsuit was filed against Nativo Lopez and six worker leaders - charged with extortion, defamation and intentional interference with the company’s customers, employees, and the union, which represents the majority of the employees. The company claims that they are being pressured to rehire the terminated employees but fails to mention anything about the procedure it took to select the almost 300 employees who were accused of a discrepancy in their social security numbers and given only 30 days to clear up the matter. These 300 employees had worked for the company between 5 and 20 years and had established their seniority and benefits under their union contract. When the employees questioned the company about their discriminatory practices, the company changed their story a few times and terminated them. Overhill Farms was not under any obligation by the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, or any other government entity to fire the employees. The company also chose to terminate workers who presented evidence to correct the discrepancy. Overhill Farms turned around and hired part-time employees (so classified), but works them 50 to 60 hours weekly, at minimum wage and provides them absolutely no benefits. This was clearly the scheme of the company to eliminate seniority employees and replace them with lower wage part-time workers.

The charges (both the felonies and civil charges) against Nativo and the workers are a clear attempt to distract them from their call for a national boycott against Overhill Farms until the company rehires the dismissed workers. The charges are aimed at distracting the public from the real issue at hand.

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The Overhill Farms company has grown to become the largest food processing pre-packed food manufacturing enterprise in southern California thanks to the Latino immigrant work-force. This work-force began with the company 35 years ago when it first appeared and now it is a multi-million dollar publicly-traded powerhouse in the food processing industry. Overhill Farms supplies pre-packaged food product to well known stores such as Jenny Craig, Panda Express, El Pollo Loco, Jack-in-the-Box, Costco, Sam’s Club, Fresh & Easy, Safeway, Heinz, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and many other food chain stores nationwide. Approximately more than 800 earn a little above the minimum wage, with moderate benefits for full-time employees. The company has grown its part-time employees, but works them in excess of 50 hours weekly, and they enjoy NO benefits.

Overhill Farms recently demonstrated its disloyalty to its long-time employees – between 5 and 20 years of service to the company, by terminating 254 of them due to supposed discrepancy of information on their social security numbers. The company alleges an IRS I-9 audit but has shown to proof to the workers of such an audit and at times given them contrasting stories on the type of audit that was allegedly given to the company. It also alleges that it gave employees 60 days to clear up the discrepancy and that no workers showed proof of such discrepancy.

IN FACT, on April 30th, the company closed down production lines under the claim that some of the workers had contributed in food contamination during production. Under this pretext, it suspended the 254 workers. On May 1st, the workers picketed the company for its discriminatory practice of targeting these workers with an alleged audit and then further suspending them from work.

IN FACT, the Social Security Administration has declared in letters both to employers and employees that such discrepancy is NOT a cause for dismissal, lay-off, or suspension from employment. It claims that an I-9 audit legally binds them to dismiss employees who were not able to rectify the discrepancy. However, federal law states that authough there might be an apparent discrepancy on a person’s files it does not automatically mean that the person is not authorized to work and not grounds for termination or discrimination on behalf of the employer. Overhill Farms President Jim Rudis has used this as a pretext to eliminate one-fourth of his work-force, amongst the most senior and several who complied and GAVE VERIFICATION OF A DISCREPANCY, and replace them with part-time classified employees with no benefits.

Many of the workers are single female heads-of-household with children. In this area of work, Mr. Rudis has decided to recycle out more senior workers and recycle new, fresh, and innocent workers, but with lower wages and no benefits. He pockets the increased profits from this scheme.

Mr. Rudis is confident that the workers would be passive as previous workers who were laid off with this similar claim. However, the workers have not accepted his racist and discriminatory abuse against Latino immigrants and their families without a fight. The workers of Overhill Farms are valiant and are fighting back, have taken their cause to the streets, their communities, other unions, churches, the media, and the world-wide-web. The workers have valiantly called a national boycott of Overhill Farms products. They call on people across the country to refuse to consume from a producer that has consumed their work product and in turn discriminated against them via a mass firing.

The workers at Overhill Farms that stood up against their unfair boss have also been targeted by a lawsuit of the company.  On July 1, 2009, a civil lawsuit was filed against Nativo Lopez, a long-time immigrant rights activist, and six worker leaders - charged with extortion, defamation and intentional interference with the company’s customers, employees, and the union, which represents the majority of the employees.  The company claims that they are being pressured to rehire the terminated employees but fails to mention anything about the procedure it took to select the 254 employees who were accused of a discrepancy in their social security numbers and given only 30 days to clear up the matter. Overhill Farms was not under any obligation by the Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, or any other government entity to fire the employees.  This action on the part of the company was clearly the scheme to eliminate seniority employees and replace them with lower wage part-time workers.

THE WORKERS DEMAND A RETURN EMPLOYMENT WITH FULL BACK PAY

THEY DEMAND THE PROTECTION OF ALL CURRENT EMPLOYEES

THEY DEMAND FULL BENEFITS FOR PART-TIME EMPLOYEES

THEY DEMAND THE UNION REPRESENTATION THAT THEY DESERVE

Signed: The Worker’s Council of Overhill Farms

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Nativo Lopez is known nationally for his organizing and support of immigrants, workers, and students. As president of the Mexican American Political Association and national director of the Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamericana, Nativo is a vocal advocate for the rights of undocumented immigrants who face persecution because of their status: be it at their workplace, school, or communities. Most recently he founded a new independent union, the General Brotherhood of Workers International Union, and has been working closely with terminated employees from the company Overhill Farms and assisting in their fight against unjust firings. Overhill Farms is the largest food processing and manufacturing company in California with between 800 and 1,000 employees, based in the city of Vernon, and supplies packaged food product to companies such as Jenny Craig, Panda Express, El Pollo Loco, American Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Safeway, and many other super-market chain stores.

How we've taken action:

JULY 28TH, 2009 at 8:30 am at the Los Angeles Superior Court (210 W. Temple St., Los Angeles, CA 90012) will be Nativo’s preliminary hearing in front of judge. Come support Nativo & wear white.

JULY 29th, 2009, 4:00 pm, 747 Warehouse St, Los Angeles, CA 90021: March to demand that the Obama administration stops the rampant I-9 audits and use of E-Verify resulting in the termination of thousands of workers across the country.

August 1st, 2009, 1:00 pm, La Placita Olvera:

Website by Zero1/Cero Uno
and NetworkAztlan Photography by adrian alvarez.