LAKEVILLE — Holding vigil outside the house of Kyler’s Seafood owner Jeff Nanfelt Thursday evening, 30 ex-employees and their supporters demanded severance pay equivalent to one week’s wages for each year worked.
Those at the vigil were part of a group of 52 workers let go in May after an audit of the company by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
They were all handed letters giving them three days’ notice of their termination on May 2, according to Margarita Garcia, a worker originally from Guatemala who was employed at Kyler’s for 10 years.
“No matter how poorly we were treated,” she told The Standard-Times in Spanish, “we never left the job.”
The ex-workers distributed flyers discussing their grievances to neighbors and protested at Nanfelt’s Lakeville home, a large white house set back on a cul-de-sac, for about an hour Thursday night. The group spent most of its time on the street, trying to summon the Kyler owner from inside the house.
Toward the end of the vigil, about a half dozen people walked up to the door, rang the doorbell and took pictures, said neighbor Roger Poineau, 66.
“It appeared they were taking pictures of themselves. A couple of the flashes looked like they were trying to take pictures inside the house,” he said. “That was about it. … They peacefully walked away.”
Nanfelt did not respond to requests for comment.
Diego Chivalan, 32, and also from Guatemala, worked at Kyler’s for six years and also spoke of mistreatment.
“They always exploited us,” he said.
“This is an example of how immigrant workers are exploited daily throughout this country,” said Edwin Argueta, an organizer with Boston-based Jobs for Justice. “They deserve respect at least.”
The group included some of the 52 Kyler’s workers let go after an “I-9 audit,” a verification process conducted by ICE aimed at determining whether all employees working in a given business have legal permission to work in the United States. Calling it a “silent raid” in a press release July 11, the Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores, organizers of the action, claimed that the 52 workers were let go with only three days notice and without severance pay.
Francisco Ramos of United Interfaith Action’s Fall River branch said the audits are “a different way of doing the same thing that the 2007 raid did,” referring to the March 2007 raid on the Michael Bianco Factory in the South End in which ICE netted 321 undocumented workers and their employers.
“After so many years, the company doesn’t appreciate us while they get wealthy off our work,” said Maria Santos to the assembled crowd.
Her niece, Jennifer Santos, 13, was by her aunt’s side to support her. When asked why she was there, Jennifer said: “I feel bad for my aunt. I think she should get something for being there (Kyler’s).”
As they left, the group began to chant “We will return!”
