Inside Fourth Street Foods in tiny Charleroi, where workers hail from 41 countries
By Madaleine Rubin / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Inside a 125,000-square-foot warehouse in Washington County — past a room filled with whirring conveyor belts, blue-suited workers, and hundreds of sausage patties — two women embraced on a recent Friday morning.
One was Lulu Mwale, director of community affairs at Fourth Street Foods, a frozen-food manufacturing company headquartered in Charleroi, Washington County. The other was Fania Louima, a box maker at the factory who immigrated here from Haiti about four years ago.
Ms. Louima brightened at the sight of Ms. Mwale. She stopped her and told her about her children.
“All boys, and she’s been hoping for a girl,” Mrs. Mwale said, turning a corner. “I used to go with her to her doctor’s appointments; I used to take her when she was pregnant. That was her second child [but] the first child that she had in the U.S., so she didn’t know what to do.”
Fourth Street Foods started in 2017 as a barbecue business selling shredded and packaged meats, but shifted its focus to frozen food products after two years. Today, the company makes and packages frozen sandwiches, bowls and dinners for major retailers nationwide.
With a staff of around 1,000 across two facilities in Charleroi, Fourth Street is one of the borough’s largest employers. About 700 of its employees are temporary workers — mostly immigrants legally authorized to work in the U.S.
Last month, former President Donald Trump put Charleroi on the map when he made claims about the town’s migrant population at a rally. A media — and social media — blitz ensued, and Fourth Street was unwittingly swept into the fray, accused online of hiring non-permitted workers over Americans.
But that’s never been the case, said Fourth Street Foods owner Dave Barbe, who grew up in Charleroi. Immigrants have always been a part of the community, and have worked legally in Fourth Street’s factories for 14 years — even before the barbecue business came to be, Mr. Barbe said.
“The job is first offered to any American that wants it,” Mr. Barbe said.
‘I need a workforce’
In each of the factory’s 40-degree rooms, employees know Ms. Mwale.
She’s helped workers from Nepal who assemble sandwiches enroll in English classes. She’s helped workers from Indonesia who package breakfast bowls find housing. Across assembly lines and inside break rooms, employees stop conversations and raise latex-gloved hands to greet her.
“It’s like family here,” Ms. Mwale said.
Ms. Mwale, a Zambian immigrant, joined the company in 2019 and wears several hats. With employees from 41 different countries, her job can include enrolling families new to the U.S. in English classes and schools, or helping them access doctors, Fourth Street CEO Chris Scott said.
For Mr. Barbe, industry looms large in his past, and in Charleroi’s.
As a kid, Mr. Barbe helped his father stock vending machines in the town’s glass factory with Coca-Cola from a local bottling warehouse. The 132-year old plant helped build Charleroi, attracting an original staff of immigrants from Charleroi in Belgium, a European glassmaking hub.
Over time, though, industry left. In 2017, Mr. Barbe discovered that the old Coca-Cola warehouse was sitting idle, and he started Fourth Street Foods.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic came, and demand for frozen food products skyrocketed. Fourth Street Foods was labeled an essential business.
“That was a level [of production] that, if Jesus was here to help me, he would be on the line,” Mr. Barbe said.
Fourth Street began hiring, urgently. The company needed a staff of almost 1,500, Mr. Barbe said — or, over a quarter of Charleroi’s population. Mr. Barbe advertised open positions in the community and on job-listing sites. But Fourth Street could not find enough employees to meet consumer demand. So it leaned on contracts with temporary staffing agencies.
“I need a workforce,” Mr. Barbe said. “We found various agencies that were able to supply labor.”
Fourth Street Foods pays agencies an hourly rate about equal to the starting salary for an entry-level position with the company. Agencies then pay employees — many of whom are immigrants. The hourly wage temporary workers receive from agencies is lower than Fourth Street Foods’ entry-level salary. But a job with the agency includes coverage of some or all housing and utilities costs, as well as transportation to work, Mr. Barbe said. Contracts with agencies specify that workers must be legally authorized to live and work in the U.S., according to Mr. Barbe and Mr. Scott.
Seeking opportunity
Jean Roudy Abellard, 29, arrived at Fourth Street Foods from Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, in 2021.
Mr. Abellard started as a line worker, but he quickly saw the opportunity to move up. In a factory room, making breakfast sandwiches, workers who lay buns down on the conveyor belt make less than workers who wrap sandwiches in plastic, who make less than workers running the room, who make less than mechanics. Within two weeks of his start date, Mr. Abellard was promoted. He rose through the ranks and became Ms. Mwale’s assistant, welcoming other immigrants into the factory.
Eventually, he was able to afford his own apartment, help his sisters immigrate, and seek another job.
Now, Mr. Abellard works as a data analyst at a litigation firm in New Jersey.
“If I didn’t have Fourth Street, I wouldn’t have that work experience to seek other opportunities,” Mr. Abellard said. “Also, it has helped me financially support my family.”
But working with the agencies — including Prosperity Services, Celebrities Staffing Services and The Wellington Agency — has not been seamless.
In a civil suit filed in September, federal investigators alleged that Prosperity Services paid, housed and sent undocumented workers to work at Fourth Street Foods. Mr. Barbe said the company was not aware of Prosperity Services’ actions and that it has cooperated with investigators. Additionally, the company now requires staffing agencies to be audited by independent agencies, who provide reports to Fourth Street Foods.
Fourth Street uses the federal government’s E-Verify system to confirm the legal status of employees, Mr. Barbe said. Around 160 Prosperity Services temporary workers remain employed at Fourth Street Foods; their work authorization has been verified, he said.
“Anybody that’s in our facility from any of the agencies right now has the ability to work,” Mr. Barbe said. “We’ve had various audits over the last year to make sure that anybody that comes in our door has the proper verification.”
Federal investigators involved in the case could not immediately be reached for comment.
The company is currently down about 400 temporary employees since 2020, Mr. Barbe said. And its full-time staff has increased by about 100 employees.
Still, the company continues to struggle to fill positions. Fourth Street advertised an open mechanic position with an hourly wage of $30 for about 10 months before it was filled, Mr. Scott said. Only two people applied.
“Americans are not interested in this kind of work,” Mr. Scott said. “They’re just not. ... We’ve been doing this for 30-plus years — that’s been the story for 30-plus years.”
‘Trying to grow and add’
Mr. Barbe also purchases and renovates properties in Charleroi and leases them to employees and locals. In 2020, he invested nearly $3 million to remodel around 50 empty homes, he said.
The properties were dilapidated and “on the verge of demolition,” said Charleroi Borough Council President Kristin Hopkins-Calcek.
Mr. Barbe views his real estate business as part of his annual community contributions, which includes donations to the Charleroi Regional Police Department, Charleroi Fire Department and Charleroi Area School District.
“We wouldn’t have fireworks every year if it wasn’t for Dave Barbe,” Ms. Hopkins-Calcek said. “We wouldn’t have bands in the summer, equipment in the fire department — [he makes] contributions like crazy.”
Mr. Barbe has lived in and around Charleroi for decades. He’s watched the downtown area change.
Some stores, like Kenny’s Children’s Shop, remain boarded up, dust-covered and vacant.
Others have been transformed.
That’s because immigrants are opening new businesses — including Queen’s Market, a grocery store, and D&D Fitness, a gym.
Meanwhile, Charleroi is struggling to hold on. The Quality Pasta plant shut down in August. The borough’s glass factory is nearing permanent closure. Fourth Street Foods is also experiencing a slowdown, operating at half capacity, producing far less than they were four years ago.
But Fourth Street Foods intends to ramp up production.
“We’re trying to grow and add new business, and add additional jobs,” Mr. Scott said. “And we’re going to continue to do what we do in the community.”