Palermo’s Pizza is one of the nation’s largest makers of frozen pizza and the latest example of a yet another Milwaukee-born company that has grown and prospered into a prominent national brand. The company has been in the news a great deal lately but unfortunately, the headlines aren’t about new products, job expansions or about the many investments they make in the community.
Sadly, the company is caught in the middle of the great national discourse our country is having on how current immigration laws are enforced while creating a path to citizenship for our newest Americans. I understand and personally relate to the debate on immigration reform.
Like the Falluccas at Palermo, I would not be here if it were not for my visionary immigrant parents who worked hard, paid taxes, contributed to the economy and sent five sons to defend this country and protect its freedoms.
The United States was not their country of origin but for many, many years the U.S. was their home. As head of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin (HCCW), I’ve watched this debate closely and I feel compelled to render some facts about Palermo’s situation amid the tidal wave of vitriol and rhetoric.
The issue began back in 2011, when the company was contacted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Palermo’s became the focus of one of the thousands of audits conducted by ICE each year to verify that employees were legal to work in the United States. ICE determined that a number of workers needed to provide further evidence of their work eligibility because what was on file with Palermo’s did not match U.S. immigration records.
As a point of fact, the law is very clear that employing people who do not have the appropriate documentation to work in the United States is considered a serious issue that is punishable by large fines and potential criminal prosecution.
Palermo’s then set about to comply with the law and it was at that point that a great travesty occurred. Through various media statements and social media outlets, it appeared that the individuals organizing the efforts against Palermo’s told the workers affected by the ICE audit that they could be reinstated to their jobs if they unionized.
To be clear, no company can legally employ any worker who does not have the proper documentation to work in this country and to tell them otherwise is dishonest and deceitful. To offer members of our community such false hope in clear contradiction to the law does the workers, and all who work to reform the current legislation, a grave disservice.
To add insult to injury, this same group has subsequently made numerous allegations relating to workplace safety, wages, benefits and worker respect without providing any legitimate proof that would taint the HCCW’s indisputable experience with Palermo’s along with the positive input that has been shared by its multicultural workforce over numerous years.
While Palermo’s Pizza is not a member of the HCCW, it is a valued employer who provides family sustaining jobs and fair benefits for many Hispanics and other people in our community; a community that has lost so many manufacturing jobs.
In this economy, Palermo’s is precisely the type of company we should be putting up on a pedestal, rather than slandering. Milwaukee’s economy depends on these employers to innovate and grow their businesses so they can expand and hire more workers. Food companies need to be close to their resources as well as their customers, unlike technology companies who’ve long since moved overseas. These are the most desirable jobs that ought to be in our urban backyards.
Palermo’s is in a difficult situation. It cannot rehire the workers because they lack the proper documentation to prove their citizenship. There is no option – that is the law. To its credit, Palermo’s has also not sunk to the level of its attackers to answer unfounded charges about its workplace.
Instead, Palermo’s has taken a unique and unusual aggressive action and asked the AFL-CIO, the organizing group , and the National Labor Relations Board to remove all barriers and allow its workers to vote on whether or not they want a union. This is a bold move! If the allegations we believe to be false are correct, what group of workers wouldn’t want a union? The move is a transparent and direct way to address the unfounded charges, and I applaud Giacomo Fallucca and his colleagues at Palermo’s Pizza.
Palermo’s workers deserve a vote and to have their voice heard. And Palermo’s Pizza deserves to have it known that it has friends in the Hispanic community who respect and appreciate all it does for Milwaukee.
Maria Monreal-Cameron is president and CEO of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin (HCCW).
