In response to the decision by Tyson Foods, Inc. to fire American workers and replace them with illegal immigrants, a conservative investment fund has dumped all of its stock in the company.
According to a March 19 press release, the American Conservative Values exchange-traded fund (ETF) “announced that it has divested its holdings of and initiated a ‘Refuse to Buy’ rating on Tyson Foods, Inc.”
“After a comprehensive review of our continued investment,” the press release stated, “ACVF’s management team has decided to divest its holding of Tyson Foods, Inc.”
In the press release, ACVF CEO and co-founder William Flaig is quoted saying, “Their recent decision to hire migrant workers while firing American workers exposes their shareholders to backlash from one of the most contentious political issues of the day.”
In an interview with The Epoch Times, Mr. Flaig said, “This is something I am passionate about.”
“I run an ETF called American Conservative Values ETF. Obviously, my clientele is politically conservative investors,” he said, noting that “ownership of a company is a tool we have to change behavior.”
His concerns were sparked by recent revelations that the company wants to hire illegal immigrants rather than American citizens.
In a March 11 report by Bloomberg, a Tyson spokesperson said the company is eager to hire more than 40,000 of the illegal immigrants crossing America’s border from South and Central America.
Garrett Dolan, who has served as Tyson’s associate director of human resources for the past six months, implied in a statement to Bloomberg that the company likes the level of devotedness shown by illegal immigrants in need of security.
“They’re very, very loyal,” Mr. Dolan said. “They’ve been uprooted and what they want is stability—what they want is a sense of belonging. We would like to employ another 42,000 if we could find them.”
However, Tyson Foods is now disputing reports that claim they are seeking to hire thousands of illegal immigrants rather than American workers.
“In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight,” the statement reads, adding that “any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false.”
‘Damage Is the Perception’
As reported on March 18 by NTD: “Tyson Foods Inc. has come under fire for allegedly firing American workers, only to hire illegal immigrants to fill their positions. It comes as the company announced the closure of one of its packing facilities in Perry, Iowa, which is resulting in nearly 1,300 layoffs.”From a shareholder’s perspective, Mr. Flaig suggests Tyson mismanaged the communication about hiring illegal immigrants and “stumbled into this firestorm.”
“Whether they want to be or not,” he added, “the company is politically active. It’s truly a bad outcome for the investors. You saw it with Bud Light and Target and once momentum starts to grow and customers are dissatisfied it can do a lot of brand damage. They can’t make it go away. So how much more it’s going to keep ratcheting up, I don’t know. But we’re protecting our investors by boycotting and divesting from them. We sold what we had, and we’re not going to invest in them again until there is a satisfactory resolution.”
In the meantime, he said they will be investing in Tyson’s “competitors.”
“I think they are replacing Americans with migrants,” he asserted. “At a minimum, this is going to put more pressure on the border and illegal immigration, it’s going to increase the flow across the border, which is a large concern to politically conservative investors.”
Asked about Tyson’s denial that the company is hiring illegal immigrants over Americans, Mr. Flaig said, “They’re in damage control, so I don’t know how far we can take them at their word.”
“They’ve created this crisis on their own,” he said. “As a professional investor, I don’t want to own their stock, and I don’t think that anything they’ve said so far is reducing the crisis. It’s probably increasing the crisis.”
Thus far, Tyson’s stock seems unaffected by the investment boycott and appears to be performing well.
Mr. Flaig said, “The story is only a couple of days old. But the last time I looked they were underperforming.”
He also noted that stock price is not the only indicator of a company’s performance.
In the last quarter of 2023, Tyson reported a 2.8 percent decline in sales over the previous year, equating to a loss of more than $13 million. In February, Tyson reported only a small recovery, with sales rising by just 0.4 percent over the previous year.
“The damage is the perception,” Mr. Flaig proposed. “The damage is to their brand. Politically conservative investors are beginning to appreciate that the power of their wallets includes where they invest as well as buying a product. It’s a tool that’s available to politically conservative investors in what I would call a fight against the woke, liberal takeover of corporate America. It’s part of the awakening.”
The Epoch Times reached out to Tyson Foods for comment.
