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Workers Fired for Rally Attendance

Fifteen immigrant women were fired from their jobs as meat cutters after attending a protest for immigrant rights. Jay Bonahoom, general manager of Wolverine Packing Company, says the women had been told they would be terminated if they missed work on the day of the March rally in Detroit.

But the workers say the women received no such warning. Elena Herrada, an activist trying to get the women`s jobs back, says the women would not have skipped the morning shift if they knew they would have been fired for attending the rally.

The fired workers were natives of Mexico. Many had worked at Wolverine Packing for several years, and some were undocumented immigrants. Herrada says, they were fired, "for standing up for their rights". Observers note that as illegal immigrants, they have no inherent rights as Americans.