Local News Flash
Of course work was hell last night, and yesterday morning (even though I wasn’t there…Patricia was there by herself again.) I finally found out why. I picked up Hilton Head’s local newspaper for the first time yesterday, because Hispanics have been missing from work since Wednesday…not just at Food Lion, but all over the island. A customer was talking about how Bi-Lo was cleaned out (43 out of 76 of their employees are being investigated). WOW! He said it was all in the papers…I wouldn’t have known because I could care less about what goes on in Hilton Head…I just work there. Anyway, it is stated that since that big boycott the Hispanics had, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been investigating in Hilton Head. This was also due to a dramatic increase in the Hispanic population over the last couple of months. ICE agents have been monitoring stores and apartment complexes, and assisting the local police in traffic blocks. Since I’ve found this out, a lot of things make since to me. For example, I no longer have Hispanics living next door to me…one afternoon they were there, the next morning the house was abandoned like no one was ever there. Another example, half of our employees at FL are Hispanic and they haven’t been to work since the whole Bi-Lo thing. One of them received a call while at work, and she left because it was “urgent” and she hasn’t been back since. Then we had another Hispanic worker quit yesterday out of the blue (a really great worker…never missed a day…always there when you need him). Besides that, we’ve had most of them calling out sick or just plain…not showing up.
What does this mean to me? This means that I’m going to be working more hours now. I actually got overtime last week…a first since I’ve been employed there because we’ve always had too many people to work. Then, the new girls (also Hispanic) that were supposed to start, suddenly decided that they didn’t want the job anymore. That’s completely understandable because according to some of the people who worked at the store for a very long time, FL was cleaned out in early 2005 because they had so many illegals working there. The store manager at that time got fired because he was the one who had hired them knowing that they were illegal. During that time there was one that made it through the cracks (same one that hasn’t been there since Wednesday). But she has her entire family here now…grandparents, boyfriend, and all.
Okay okay…enough rambling! I’ll return comments later.
