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Lawsuit accuses Swift of `racketeering'

Submitted December 19, 2006 - 1:30 am by Bill Conroy
There has been an interesting development in the Swift raid story.

The Houston Chronicle reports that the meat-processing company is being sued by a group of former employees for $23 million. The employees claim the company hired undocumented immigrants as part of a scheme to depress wages at its plants.

From the story:

The 18 former employees are legal residents who worked at a plant in Cactus, north of Amarillo, one of six facilities raided an a multistate federal sweep that led to the arrests of nearly 1,300 employees and temporarily halted Swift's operations.

"These plaintiffs are ... victims in a longstanding scheme by Swift to depress and artificially lower the wages of its workers by knowingly hiring illegal workers," said their attorney, Angel Reyes. "By lessening its labor costs and increasing its profits, Swift has severely damaged the potential earnings and livelihood of these hardworking men and women."

Greely, Colo.-based Swift and the Dallas firm that owns it didn't immediately return calls Monday.

The lawsuit was filed late Friday against Swift and investment firm HM Capital Partners LLC, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. They contend Swift and HM Capital Partners engaged in racketeering to manipulate commerce.

HM Capital, of course, is the new name for Dallas-based private equity firm Hicks Muse, which was co-founded in 1989 by long-time Bush financial supporter Thomas O. Hicks. The chairman and also a co-founder of HM Capital is John R. Muse, who, along with HM Capital partners Edward Herring and Joe Colonnetta Jr., serve on the board of directors of Swift Holdings, the parent company of the Swift operating entities, according to Swift’s annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

“Thomas Hicks retired at the end of 2004; co-founder John Muse replaced him at the helm of the firm,” states a report by the online business-research service Hoovers.com.

HM Capital manages a $1.6 billion investment portfolio, according to its Web site.

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