One mad cow ignites struggle for survival for hundreds of workers

Although recently laid off her job at Excel Corp., Rebecca Olivares is one of the lucky ones; born and reared in Kansas, she is blessed with the support of her husband, Guadalupe, and a weekly unemployment check of $236.

But for the undocumented workers from meat packing plants across the country who cannot file for unemployment, every day is lived on a hope and a prayer that the phone will ring and they will be asked to come back to work.

"They come to the United States to look for a better life, and they have to struggle and go through a lot, and just to get laid off like that is hard," Olivares said.

When a single cow was found with Mad Cow Disease in Washington late last year, the ripple effects caused hundreds of workers at beef packing plants to be laid off their jobs, and many others to suffer shortened working hours. The layoffs have left scores of undocumented immigrants with absolutely no means of support.

Excel laid off 6 to 7 percent of its employees at beef processing plants across Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas after several countries closed their borders to U.S. beef.

While some people may feel the lack of documentation should equate to a one-way ticket south of the border, Olivares has seen the face of poverty in Mexico, and understands why so many seek desperately to find jobs here. Her husband’s family is from the village of Zacatecas.

"They suffer down there," she said. "There are no jobs. They want a better life. I’ve been there with my husband. I would never want to live there."

Olivares explained that the majority of people from Mexico seeking work in the United States are from "small ranches, and not big cities."

"They live in little ranches in the mountains. The only way you eat is if you grow crops. If you grow beans or corn, that’s what you eat. The houses are made out of adobe, and they are cold in winter and hot in summer with flies all over the place. It’s awful."

She explained that her husband’s village now has plumbing and electricity, but when they visited the community less than a decade ago, family members still had to go into the surrounding forest to use the bathroom.

"The lights all of the sudden go out, and you had to wait two or three days for them to come back," she explained. "There’s a lot of people begging for money. I guess that’s why they come from over there."

Olivares, a mother of five, had been at her job at Excel for nearly five years. Although hard work, she said she loved her job and appreciated her foreman. She also said she felt she had been treated fairly. Excel has so far hired back approximately 45 of the original 120 or so people laid off, Olivares said. But whether or not the borders reopen to U.S. beef and the market improves to the point that all employees are invited back to work remains to be seen.