Last Friday morning at Jimenez's garage, the first customer, wearing a Vikings cap and Minnesota Loons T-shirt, ordered a quesadilla. jobs? Or find another company in the United States to accept a work transfer? Return to their home of Guanajuato in central Mexico where they may face violence or debts they'd hoped to pay off with three years working good-paying U.S. For those on H-2B visas - temporary work permits for noncitizens - the choices are limited. Of the 1,000-plus workers, nearly half are immigrants. Paul, legislators just wrapped up session with a bill to send Windom $14 million to stymie the damage left in HyLife's wake, aiding a sewer, a school and a housing complex on the edge of town with unfinished homes that are wrapped in Tyvek. District Judge Thomas Horan approved the company's plan to pay employees $1.7 million, calling them "the lifeblood of the company." In St. Days later, the plant filed for bankruptcy.Īt a bankruptcy hearing in Delaware on April 28, U.S. In early April, Manitoba-based HyLife announced plans to shutter the Windom plant on June 2. He now works four 10-hour shifts at a nearby ethanol plant, but takes off Fridays with his fiancé, Erica Flores, to sell tacos from their home. Jimenez used to work at the pork plant himself. "A lot of them are getting to that desperation stage," Jimenez said, speaking over sizzling meat. Inside a garage with the doors flung open, Javier Jimenez drops onions and peppers onto his propane gas grill.Īs he carves slices of pineapple-marinated pork from the hunk of al pastor, Jimenez laments the fates of workers from Mexico - many of them his customers - who will have 10 days to return home after the HyLife slaughterhouse on the edge of town closes Friday.
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