By Christi Parsons
CANTON, Miss.--Former Sen. John Edwards' poverty tour was supposed to take him on a walk through a trailer park in this Mississippi Delta town this afternoon, but then his aides got a phone call from an attorney.
The property owner was denying the Edwards presidential campaign access to the park where dozens of local poultry plant workers live, Edwards staffers said.
According to residents and their advocates, many of the trailers are run-down and they lack plumbing, and the workers can't afford to live anywhere else on the pay they earn at the plant. The owner reportedly didn't want all the TV cameras coming by.
The Edwards campaign had to quickly revise its public schedule, but the change was scarcely a hardship. Rather, it served to focus attention on the problems Edwards says he wants to highlight on the three-day tour of poverty-stricken areas.
"A lot of people are working full-time, trying to support their families, trying to do the right thing, and they are being taken advantage of," Edwards said, after meeting with several of the workers. "They live in poverty."
The meeting took place across the street from the trailer park in the Greater Mt. Levi Baptist Full Gospel Church, where workers and community activists sat in a semi-circle to talk to Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, about their pay and their working and living conditions.
"I started out working at one of the plants, using right-handed scissors on my left hand," said Leice Murry Caldwell, who now works for the Madison County Alliance Against Poverty. One of her tasks is pushing for better living arrangements for low-wage workers in the area.
Bob Montgomery, an attorney for LLM Inc., which operates the trailer park, said his client did not want to be part of an Edwards campaign event and was concerned about security for the site's tenants.
Montgomery said the company is unaware of holes in the trailers' roofs or absence of plumbing.
Referring to his client, Montomgery said, "He knows it's not very pleasant. He realizes it needs to be improved." Montomgery added, "He has committed to make improvements."
Managers for the poultry plants so far have not returned calls.
Edwards said he did not reach out to the manufacturers to talk about the conditions before traveling to Canton with press in tow.
"I have not, but I have some personal experience with this because we have chicken plant companies, hog processing plants in North Carolina," Edwards said. "I have some experience with this already. And when the problems are as pervasive as they appear to be in this case, when 100 percent of the plants that they look at are not paying their workers for all the hours they work . . . as determined by an objective third party, not just by the workers . . . It's a little hard to believe there aren't serious abuses. I think there are clearly serious abuses."
At the moment, Edwards is headed to Marks, Miss., where Rev. Martin Luther King., Jr. kicked off his Poor People's March in 1968.
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Comments
A guy who gets $400 haircuts is out to discover poverty? Give me a break.
Posted by: Sierra | July 16, 2007 6:22 PM
What a joke!
"...[W]hen 100 percent of the plants that they look at are not paying their workers for all the hours they work . . . as determined by an objective third party, not just by the workers . . . It's a little hard to believe there aren't serious abuses."
Who's this "objective third party", anyway? Him?
And instead of "marching" on some landlord as a proxy for the "abuses" of chicken farmers, why didn't he "march" on a chicken plant -- IN NORTH CAROLINA?!
Posted by: Biggdawg | July 16, 2007 7:33 PM
Wasn't Tyson one of President Clinton's largest donors - at least before the Chinese entered the picture?
Posted by: Terry | July 16, 2007 8:16 PM
Why doesn't Senator Edwards get some his hedge fund buddies and buy the plant and then they can operate as they see fit.
Posted by: Terry | July 16, 2007 8:17 PM
'It's all just librool whining, blah blah blah.'
Where's Upton Sinclair whey you need him?
Posted by: C.Morris | July 16, 2007 9:05 PM
A guy who gets $400 haircuts is out to discover poverty? Give me a break.
Posted by: Sierra | July 16, 2007 6:22 PM
Yeah, you're right. He should be drinking champagne out of your slipper.
Posted by: chimpymcflightsuit's navigator | July 16, 2007 11:02 PM
It's a fact of life that America doesn't see. The treatment of these and other workers, that have full time jobs and in most cases work overtime and not make a "living wage is reprehensible of these employers. I want to thank this reporter for reporting the facts and going beyond the sound bite mentality of the national media. This is what they teach in journalism class. Mr. Edwards has made America focus on this very important issue, though its not the safe thing to do, I have one question for the naysayers. When was the last time you said the word"poverty" before this campaign?
Posted by: Hank | July 17, 2007 3:03 AM
Hank, I could say, "Good going, Sen. Edwards," but why is he doing this now? This has been going on for years, and especially in his home state. Why wouldn't Edwards try to make an issue of this when he was a Senator?
I'll agree that some of these conditions and pay are completely out of line. But, I also believe John Edwards could care less about this other than it being a campaign photo op.
Posted by: John D | July 17, 2007 8:34 AM
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney recorded $300 in payments to a California company that describes itself as “a mobile beauty team for hair, makeup and men’s grooming and spa services.”
Romney spokesman Kevin Madden confirmed that the payments — actually two separate $150 charges — were for makeup, though he said the former Massachusetts governor had only one session with Hidden Beauty of West Hills, Calif.
Posted by: snitramc | July 17, 2007 9:57 AM
Snitramc, that is still less money than the $600 the Boy Governor Wannabe paid, with taxpayer funds I might add, to get himself gussied up for his talk to the state legislature. And still less than the $1,200 the Breck Girl has paid to have his hair manicured.
Posted by: John D | July 17, 2007 10:30 AM
Yawn. Beam me up Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here.
Posted by: snitramc | July 17, 2007 11:38 AM
"CANTON, Miss.--Former Sen. John Edwards' poverty tour was supposed to take him on a walk through a trailer park in this Mississippi Delta town this afternoon,..."
Christi, neither Canton nor Madison County, MS is in the "Mississippi Delta". See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_Delta
for the facts.
If your grasp of politics is as acute as your grasp of geography, God help your readers.
Posted by: Bruce | July 17, 2007 12:22 PM
Bruce, Christi, Frank James and all are why most Trib readers and bloggers today are loony Lefties. Facts, geography, etc, have little to do anymore.
Posted by: John D | July 17, 2007 2:18 PM
"A guy who gets $400 haircuts is out to discover poverty? Give me a break.
Posted by: Sierra | July 16, 2007 6:22 PM"
Beats voting for a wannabe cowboy who pays $5,000 each for his suits.
Posted by: BC | July 17, 2007 2:39 PM