Local Hispanics respond quietly to boycott

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By ART HOVEY / Lincoln Journal Star

Three weeks ago, when thousands of Hispanics marched for immigration reform in Lincoln, the MBA Poultry workforce at Tecumseh shrank from the normal 225 to eight.

The entire management team spent the day on the processing line.

Company President Mark Haskins was back at his desk and happy to report Monday that he did not have to put aside a knife to talk on the telephone.

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Nine-year-old Grecia Macias and her mother, Marissa Aldrete, listen to a speaker during a candlelight vigil at the Hispanic Community Center in Lincoln on Monday night. (Eric Gregory)

Nine-year-old Grecia Macias and her mother, Marissa Aldrete, listen to a speaker during a candlelight vigil at the Hispanic Community Center in Lincoln on Monday night. (Eric Gregory)

Fewer immigrant workers 60 miles southeast of Lincoln responded to the latest national calls to demonstrate their economic clout by skipping work and staying out of non-Hispanic stores.

“In total, we had a little stronger than 50 employees who did not show up today,” Haskins said, “which was a dramatic reduction from the first walk-off.”

With a divided Congress still considering options like amnesty and mass deportation, it’s unlikely that the national debate over immigration will end anytime soon.

“The big issue is what to do with 12 million undocumenteds, most of who are working in hotels, meatpacking plants, etc., and doing significant labor for us,” said Miguel Carranza, a professor of sociology and ethnic studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Carranza was at work Monday and planning to refrain from any personal shopping trips for the day. “I think each individual and families need to decide what strategy works for them.”

But the leadership at Lincoln’s Hispanic Center urged the city’s estimated 10,000 Hispanic residents to go to work and school. And feedback from the employment and retail sectors suggested a fairly muted boycott response.

Carmela Sanchez de Jimenez, executive director at the center, cited “a lot of debate nationwide about whether marches and rallies are in the best interest of supporting complex immigration reform.”

Under those circumstances, the local attitude seemed to be “to not jeopardize support from business, from cities, from non-Latinos. So we took that same approach as well.”

That’s not to suggest Monday was strictly routine in Lincoln or across Nebraska.

About 100 people gathered behind the Hispanic Center near the 27th and O streets intersection Monday night for a candlelight vigil. Local activist and organizer Felix Rivas, a speaker during the April 10 unity rally in Lincoln, said it was important to build on that message.

The candlelight vigil “is not about numbers. It’s not about press coverage,” Rivas said. “It’s about people wanting to be here and be here for the right reasons.”

The most important reason for Jacqueline Cerda and husband Jesus of Lincoln is making him a legal resident of the United States.

Jacqueline Cerda and their two children, ages 12 and 4, are American citizens. Jesus, a 5-year-employee at a Lincoln construction company, is not.

As he works toward legal status, “he has to leave the country for 9 months,” his wife said.

The couple already has been waiting 2 years for the immigration interview that is a step toward his legal return. For as long as that process goes on, goals like homeownership are out of the question.

“It’s stopping my dreams,” Jacqueline Cerda said, “because we can’t do anything, even though we’ve been working so hard.”

Earlier and elsewhere Monday, Tyson management followed through on last week’s announcement that it would keep most of its beef and pork slaughter plants closed for the day.

Premium Protein Products also chose that option for its 120 employees in Hastings, although a Lincoln plant employing about that same number along Northwest 48th Street continued to operate.

Acknowledging a higher proportion of Hispanic workers at the Hastings plant, Steve Sands, Premium Protein chief executive officer, said it was closed “so that people could partake. We kind of leave it up to plant management and plant employees.”

The financial effect would not be huge, Sands said. “Frankly, we’ve been running at a reduced production rate in Hastings, due to closed borders for exports.”

Meanwhile, Joe Gallagher of Cooks Hams Inc. reported only one Hispanic worker absent from among about 30 who make up part of an overall workforce of about 450 on duty along West O Street.

And management sources at Embassy Suites and The Cornhusker Marriott in downtown Lincoln reported manageable numbers of absences among service workers.

“We’ve had some people ask for the day off,” said Steve Johnson of Embassy Suites, “and we granted that day off.”

It was the same story at The Cornhusker. “We’ve had a few,” responded General Manager Robert Fabiano. “I’m going to say maybe a half dozen or more.”

On the retail front, Wal-Mart also reported fairly normal shopping patterns at 3,900 stores nationwide through the morning and afternoon hours. That includes 23 Supercenters and three smaller stores in Nebraska.

Of course, the world’s largest retailer keeps many of its stores open round the clock, said Arkansas-based spokesman John Simley, “and there’s still a high sales hour at the end of the day.

“But we haven’t seen anything really that we could attribute entirely to the effect of a boycott,” Simley added.

Among Hispanic employees, “we had no higher number of unexcused absences than we would find on a normal day.”

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or ahovey@alltel.net.