Iowa Turkey Products fire

A fire destroyed the Iowa Turkey Products plant in Postville on December 20, 2003, leaving many residents without a job. The state fire marshall is still looking into the cause of the fire. About 350 people were employed by the plant, many of the whom are hispanic immigrants. More than 100 of these employees are unable to seek unemployment benefits because they are undocumented immigrants. Many hispanic immigrants say that they may have to leave Postville to look for work elsewhere, although most do not want to move because of the rural, small town values that most of the immigrants enjoy. If something does not change soon, there could be problems for the Postville economy since over 20% of the population is hispanic. The city has recently been able open two new apartment buildings and a child-care center which are used by those who worked at the turkey plant. Local businesses have been trying to absorb some of the plant's workers and the community has been trying to help by giving donations for fire victims. Iowa is now competing with Minnesota for the site of a new turkey plant. Officials were meeting to discuss a new plant during the week of January 19, 2004. It is hard to say what they outcome will be because the Minn. site is closer to the raw materials but the Postville site is closer to the markets. Hopefully things will work out for the people of Postville, IA.