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Dylan | Jeremy
| Benjamin | Tim
| Tim | Dylan |
Tim | Cristina
| Cristina | Cristina
| Abigail | Abigail
| Emily | Abigail
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Poem by Nate
There are about 200 workers at Lemke
Cheese, and about eighty of them are Hmong. In 1997 they only
had twenty employees. When they hired Hmong people they took
a risk of not knowing their culture very well. The toughest
thing between the Hmong and Caucasians was the language barrier.
There were also some stereotypes against the Hmong people
at first.
-Dylan
Chang was hired for the job because
they already had some Hmong people working there and they
needed to have a person who could speak in at least Hmong
and American English.
Chang hired more and more Hmong people. A big problem was
that the Americans thought that the Hmong were going to take
over their jobs. This problem was resolved by Chang playing
golf with the Americans and for the American people to understand
how nice Chang is and that he wouldn’t take their jobs
away.
-Jeremy
Why hire Hmong workers? You might
think it’s because, well, Chang is Hmong, and he favors
Hmong people, so he hires them. If that’s what you thought,
you were dead wrong. It’s because they’re good
workers A lot of minority groups are good workers. Now, that
doesn’t mean that if a Caucasian was a good worker,
he wouldn’t hire them. It’s just that a lot of
Hmong are good workers. What is a good worker? A good worker
is someone who has experience and whose performance is good.
-Benjamin
We talked with Chang and Dick Price, the
Chief Financial Officer. Dick said that it was important for
the company—and cultural diversity—to hire Hmong
workers. The Hmong population is also a great resource for
employment—in other words, the company wanted Hmong
workers.
-Tim
When Chang Yang came to Lemke, he learned
every single job. Once he knew everything, so to speak, he
stepped into the role he plays today, official hirer and firer.
Even now, he does some work everywhere—from Human Resources
Director to a lowly production worker.
-Tim
The toughest thing between the Hmong
and Caucasians was the language barrier. Chang always encourages
people to take ESL classes if they don’t speak English.
It is still hard to communicate across language barriers.
-Dylan
Many Hmong workers have a childcare problem:
in Laos, people wanted as large a family as possible. Many
Hmong people still have large amounts of children. Therefore,
most of the Hmong women who work at Lemke work second shift,
when their husbands aren’t working at other jobs.
-Tim
Chang Yang said we had
to put on hairnets, plastic coats, and for Mr. Wagler a beard
net. It’s pretty funny, huh? We had to wear that so
we didn’t bring in any germs and get the cheese dirty.
-Cristina
The factory used to
make cheese. But they decided to change the company to a packing
factory. It packs and labels the cheese. Chang said, “In
this factory, we work like family, brothers and sisters.”
-Cristina
 In
this company they have levels, so if you’re doing great,
they move you up to the next level. The levels are production
worker, cheese cutter, material handler, team captain, supervisor,
and manager. If you’re a manager and still doing good,
you get extra money, gifts, and a bonus.
-Cristina
Race doesn’t affect what level
a worker is in. It just matters what the worker is good at.
-Abigail
The factory receives 100-pound blocks
of cheese. The blocks are cut into pie-slices, blocks, or
shreds. The cheese is then packaged, labeled, and sent off
to stores to be sold. In every single step, the cheese is
checked carefully for germs and bacteria and the room is made
as germ-free as possible.
-Abigail
Different cheese-making places send them
huge blocks of every kind of cheese. It goes into the big
freezer warehouse, basically a giant fridge with lots of shelves
piled with chunks of cheese. (Very strong smell.)
Then they cut it into the desired shapes (blocks, slices,
shredded, etc.) then they wrap them and send them out.
-Emily
Chang works with all levels and tries
to bring the factory together. “Get everybody on the
same page,” said his boss. He encourages Hmong workers
to take ESL classes, and teaches them more about other cultures.
He teaches the non-Hmong about the Hmong, too. Each day the
Hmong workers improve their English. The company “acts
as a family,” helping each other, getting along nicely.
-Abigail
There is Nothing
Like a Cheese Factory
by Nate
The aroma of many cheeses overwhelms our nostrils
Packages of shredded and block cheeses
emerge from the wide-open mouths of machines...
There is nothing like a cheese factory.
See
more images
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