UNION TOWNSHIP - The head of a packaging company raided last week by immigration authorities and local police apologized Tuesday night and admitted child laborers were working in his plant.
"I saw the pictures in the paper like all of you," Andrew J. Kohut, Chesapeake Display and Packaging president, told a packed meeting of Union Township trustees Tuesday, "and it was obvious. "If they look that age, we want them out of the factory," he said, "and that's what we're going to do."
Mr. Kohut, also a group vice president of the parent Chesapeake Corp., pledged to increase training for supervisors and seek more full-time employees to avoid contracting with temporary vendors. He said later that the contractor which provided the employees was responsible for checking their immigration status.
If township trustees vote to remove the firm's tax abatement, Chesapeake will not oppose it.
"We have not been the type of citizen we ought to be," he said. "We are sorry. We are taking steps to address our deficiencies. We have not done right."
Mr. Kohut's comments came as trustees decided to see whether the company violated federal employment laws before pressing for forfeiture of a $7,500 annual tax abatement.
The company is accused by the U.S. Department of Naturalization and Immigration of allowing illegal aliens and children to work at its World Park industrial center.
The firm, which assembled displays for consumer products, risks the abatement because illegal workers, including children, were found at the site during a Thursday sweep by police and agents with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
"The township, the Union Township Community Improvement Corp. and the company are going to work together to find ways to meet their labor needs so the firm can remain in the community and remain in compliance with the law," said David Gully, Union Township administrator.
"We don't want to kill the company. It's a viable organization. They made a mistake, but there's got to be a solution to their labor problems," Mr. Gully said. "Why not bus workers in from areas with high unemployment? They bused people in from Price Hill, why not Hamilton?"
Township trustees Tuesday held off asking Butler County commissioners to revoke an April abatement that would save the company $7,500 annually for five years.
Federal agents Thursday found the plant held 129 workers who were thought to be illegal aliens.
The daytime work force at the 192,000-square-foot building also included 53 juveniles.
Company officials had said they would employ 225 full-time temporary workers and 35 full-time permanent workers when the company received a Rural Enterprise Zone abatement in April.
Previous stories
ILLEGAL ALIENS LIVE IN FEAR, ISOLATION August 10, 1997
MIDWEST SEEING MORE MIGRANTS August 9, 1997
COMPANY DEFENDS PRACTICES August 9, 1997
HISPANICS HERE A LONG TIME, BUT FEW NOTICED Krista Ramsey column, August 9, 1997
FIRM FACES U.S. PROBE; TAX DEAL UNDER FIRE August 8, 1997
53 JUVENILES, 29 OTHERS IN RAID FREED August 8, 1997
LOWER PRICE HILL DRAWS IMMIGRANTS August 7, 1997
FEDS ARREST 117 WORKERS AS ILLEGALS August 7, 1997
