Immigrant women fired after attending rally

updated 6:16 a.m. ET April 11, 2006

DETROIT - Fifteen immigrant women were fired from their jobs as meat cutters after attending a protest for immigrant rights last month.

The women had been told they would be terminated if they missed work on the day of the March 27 rally in Detroit, said Jay Bonahoom, general manager of Wolverine Packing Co.

But the workers said Monday that the women received no such warning. They would not have skipped the morning shift if they knew they would have been fired for attending the rally, said Elena Herrada, an activist trying to get the women’s jobs back.

The workers had been told, “written and verbally,” on the Friday before the protest that their attendance was mandatory on the day of the rally, Bonahoom told the Detroit Free Press.

The fired workers were natives of Mexico. Many had worked at Wolverine Packing for several years, and some were undocumented immigrants, Herrada said.

They were fired “for standing up for their rights,” she said.

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