Stauffer’s / Meiji, 4041 W. Garry St., Santa Ana, Calif., is the worst place to work in Orange County. The plant is deplorable and should be closed by the EEOC.

Racism is mainstream and has a place at Stauffer’s / Meiji. Everyone knows about their racism and abuse from Hispanics to Blacks. The series “Squid Game” is a parody of working at Stauffer’s / Meiji. Years ago I heard we couldn’t find Stauffer’s lasagna because their manufacturing plant was an abusive sweatshop and they had to discontinue most of their products. They were fighting to stay open.

They’re still open. I worked there from September 2021 to December 2022. Their primary culture is to overwork and underpay. Their plant is a prison-like institution with harassment and racism from Hispanics against Blacks.

I was harassed right away. My first assignment was training with a Vietnamese man. I tried to help him and he batted my arms away. His hit hurt me. It was a swat that shocked and scared me. He didn’t speak English.

Next, I was paired with another Vietnamese man. He hit me too! He swatted my hands and then showed me how he worked. He’d slap my arms with hostility to get my attention. I stopped him from hitting me by angrily staring at him and running. A Vietnamese woman swatted my hands while working. I swatted her back. She didn’t tell and I wasn’t hit any more.

Around this time a team-lead named Norman started harassing me. He screamed at me to get right every task. He screamed at me every time I worked with a Latina. Norman stalked me all year; watching me where I wasn’t expecting him. He’s probably gay. When I get emotional he comes around me and becomes more emotional.

Early on I met Sydney, a Black man supervisor in charge of managing diversity. His primary role is to protect Black workers. I felt Sydney protecting me. A white girl or Mexican guy would start harassing me and then they’d be gone. Norman has had to back up off me more each day.

But Sydney couldn’t stop everything. He couldn’t stop a Hispanic supervisor from dumping me as “paletero” because the other two paleteros were closet gays and lying about me. He couldn’t stop Hispanic machine operators from running their machines too fast so my products would spill. And he couldn’t stop Hispanics from snatching me from one task, like I was inept, putting me on another, and then snatching me off that task too. Sometimes a team-lead would present me as not skilled and not fast; meaning not Mexican.