Officials: Rumors of mass undocumented workers hired at Cullman facility untrue
May 10—Cullman city and county officials are addressing online rumors claiming that Topre America had been hiring undocumented Haitian workers en masse.
Cullman County Commission Chairman Jeff Clemons, city of Cullman Mayor Woody Jacobs, Cullman Economic Development Agency Director Dale Greer and Cullman County Economic Development Director Matt Kinsland met with senior Topre officials Thursday, May 9, after being made aware of concerns over a high number of applications being submitted to the Cullman Career Center throughout the week.
"We have not found anything that shows Topre is hiring illegals, busing non-documented workers or any other violation. They actually showed facts to counter every claim of wrongdoing to prove they are complying with state and federal guidelines at every turn," Clemmons said in a statement sent to The Times.
The staffing agency has been running advertisements to fill more than 80 positions open at Topre's facility in Cullman. While several individual's of Haitian decent did respond to these advertisements, career center director Billy Dussett and Alabama Department of Labor Communications director Tara Hutchinson denied any form of targeted audience, but instead said it casts a broad net when recruiting workers.
A response from Topre indicated that one possible explanation for the rumors is that one documented Haitian worker from a neighboring county was hired last week. It is believed once this individual learned their salary would be nearly double that of his previous job, this person encouraged their former coworkers to also apply.
According to CEDA, nearly half of the 1,029 full time employees at Topre list Cullman County as their primary residence, the others commute from neighboring areas. While Jacobs said the low unemployment rates in Cullman might be a good problem to have, it can create staffing difficulties for the county's larger employers such as Topre.
"I am proud of Topre. They have a huge financial investment in this community and provide jobs for our people and for many folks in surrounding counties. I am proud to stand with the county and Topre in our desire to see the company continue to be a driving force in the Cullman County economy. It's a team effort. It would be a shame and a terrible financial blow to this community for hundreds of jobs to disappear because someone distributed false information," Jacobs said in a release sent to The Times.
The city/county coalition were also able to dispel additional claims of "illegals being bussed in for cheap labor" after their sit down with Topre officials. Greer said Topre provided expense reports showing 26 employees from their facility in Tennessee were provided hotel rooms in Decatur and transportation to and from the Cullman location on Thursday, Friday and Saturday last week. Due to Cullman's current worker shortage, the employees had volunteered to work through the weekend to help meet production demands. This practice is likely to continue until enough workers are hired to meet the demands of the Cullman facility.
Decatur was said to have been the closest available lodging due to Cullman hosting both the state track meet and Strawberry Festival last weekend.
Greer said he was disappointed that the misinformation "gave Topre and Cullman a black eye," and that he anticipated it to make recruiting new investors and industry into the area a more difficult task.
"This hampers our ability as economic developers to recruit new industry and retail, to grow our existing company base, recruit potential workers and bring visitors in for events like Strawberry Festival, Fourth of July fireworks at Smith Lake Park, Oktoberfest, Christmas Market and other activities," Greer said. "Our community suffered a setback because a few people fueled a fire with negative, inaccurate accusations that could have easily been presented with factual information."
