Imagine looking down at a factory floor full of hard workers. Imagine the feeling of knowing those workers are saving the company massive amounts of money by working long hours for little to no pay. And they are not going to quit.

Despite horrible conditions, these employees will not quit because they have no choice. Labor trafficking occurs when an employer lies, threatens or uses violence to force people to work against their will.

Gail Sheridan-Lucht from the Iowa Division of Labor Services said, “It’s really difficult to prove the employer is trafficking. Employers call it recruiting.”

Non-English speaking immigrants, women and children are most likely to fall victim to labor trafficking. The Iowa Division of Labor office investigates occupational and safety health violations, child violations, wage violations and criminal violations, which are all issues associated with labor trafficking.

Sheridan-Lucht is also a part of a human trafficking task force that has identified certain industries with a high probability of labor trafficking. The hotel and restaurant industries and truck drivers transporting workers all contribute to the overall issue of labor trafficking.

“There’s a whole underground network that’s out there where all this exists, but you’re not going to see it,” Sheridan-Lucht said.

On a large scale level, Sheridan-Lucht said that immigrants are the most common victims of labor trafficking.

A recent, close to home example is the Agriprocessors case in Postville, Iowa, in 2008. The Kosher meatpacking plant had 300 or more illegal workers who were taken by homeland security.

“I think it brought a lot of state, and federal, officials to recognize this kind of thing is going on in this state,” Sheridan-Lucht said.

While the Iowa Division of Labor Services inspected the Agriprocessors plant, they discovered employers were recruiting illegal immigrants to work, mainly from Guatemala, Palau and Sudan.

Agriprocessors acquired these workers through heavy recruitment and advertising. Sheridan-Lucht said that promising transportation, housing, etc. also persuaded workers to make the trip to the United States.

When the labor services office received a complaint from a Catholic church in Postville, worker interviews were instigated. The interview process uncovered labor, employment, safety and child labor laws violations, which put the charges under different statutes.

“There is no labor trafficking statute in Iowa,” Sheridan-Lucht said. “There’s not a law that we enforce that even relates to labor trafficking other than Iowa Code 91E. Until there is, we have to use what statutes we have available to enforce against employers that are involved in [labor trafficking].”

Iowa Code 91E is a set of obligations for employers to follow when dealing with non-English speaking employees. Recruitment policies are also laid out in the code, saying that employers must provide a written statement with employee responsibilities, wages, hours worked and health risks associated with the job. This statute, among child labor and health and safety violations, is being used in the fight against labor trafficking.

In addition to larger companies, labor trafficking can be found in domestic homes, farms and on the streets.

Teresa Downing-Matibag, executive director of Networks Against Human Trafficking and associate professor of sociology at Iowa State University, said labor trafficking is difficult to convict because victims are often working side-by-side legitimate workers.

“If you go to a nail salon, a restaurant, or get a massage, you’re not necessarily going to know who is there legitimately or who is being trafficked,” Downing-Matibag said. “Legal businesses provide legal store fronts for trafficking activity.”

As for how Iowans can help fight against this issue, Sheridan-Lucht said to make a call to the Division of Labor Services or any government or emergency response if there are any safety or worker mistreatment issues in the workplace.

“Anything that looks odd, unusual, or that you just don’t feel right about is probably good indicator that something is very wrong,” Sheridan-Lucht said. “We’re pretty lucky that citizens of Iowa will call when they see something like that. That’s sometimes the only way we’re going to know if those kinds of things are going on.”