"Illegals" crackdown bites Chipotle

Illegal worker crackdown bites Chipotle


Lisa Baertlein, Mary Milliken and Ed Stoddard - Reuters
updated 2 hours 36 minutes ago 2011-02-08T14:52:25


Chipotle Mexican Grill has a lot going for it — an upscale burrito concept,
a hip and eco-friendly image, expansion plans galore and a 500 percent-plus stock price gain
in just over two years.

And then it has something not going its way — a federal crackdown on its immigrant labor force
that has so far forced Chipotle to fire hundreds of allegedly illegal workers in the state of Minnesota,
perhaps more than half its staff there.



Investors in the Wall Street darling are taking note and one firm, Calvert Investments,
plans to talk to Chipotle about the large number of undocumented workers uncovered.

Dependence on illegal labor is the elephant in the room for the U.S. restaurant business.


And experts say the Chipotle ICE investigations are a wake-up call for an industry
that is one of America's biggest employers and generates over $300 billion in annual sales


Chipotle — a Denver-based company whose motto is "Food With Integrity" —
is one of the most well-known names caught in the immigration enforcement shift that began two years ago.





Hardworking, loyal
Longnecker and other experts said restaurant owners are attracted to illegal laborers
because they work hard, are loyal and will go the extra mile to hold down a job.

( ^^^ who wants to be the first to correctly translate this sentence ....LOL )

It is hard to know the extent of hiring of illegal immigrants in restaurants.


The U.S. fast-food industry historically has offered relatively low pay and paltry benefits
to legal workers and, as a result, has struggled with high employee turnover.





LINK to source - full story

We love Chipotle ....
but we did noticed that about 2 or 3 years ago, all of the sudden even the front line people
did not speak a bit of english and you could not get your meal exactly they way you wanted unless you
called over some one in management

so while the illegals work, hardworking, tax paying americans are being forced to cover extended unemployment benefits for americans not working.