Tyson Foods is permanently closing a pork packing plant in Perry, Iowa—a move set to affect roughly 1,200 workers at the city’s largest employer.
A company spokesperson confirmed the closure in a statement to multiple local media outlets, saying the decision by Tyson followed “careful consideration.” The spokesperson didn’t provide further details regarding the exact reason behind the shutdown.
The Arkansas-based company—the largest U.S. meatpacker—said it would help employees who are losing their jobs, including encouraging affected workers to apply for positions at other Tyson facilities.
“We understand the impact of this decision on our team members and the local community,” the statement reads. “Taking care of our team members is our top priority, and we encourage them to apply for other open roles within the company. We are also working closely with state and local officials to provide additional resources to those who are impacted.”
About 1,276 workers are set to lose their jobs at the factory, the Des Moines Register reported.
The spokesperson said Iowa still remains a key state for Tyson Foods, pointing to the roughly 9,000 people in the state who are employed at its facilities in Waterloo, Storm Lake, and Columbus Junction.
“While this decision was not easy, it emphasizes our focus to optimize the efficiency of our operations to best serve our customers,” the spokesperson said.
Big Blow to the Community
However, Des Moines Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh told Reuters that company officials have informed him that the plant will close by June 28.Mr. Cavanaugh noted that the closure is a “big blow to the community,” given that it is the largest employer in the area.
“It’s going to be tough to figure out what to do without them,” he said.
The mayor noted that he intends to work with local, state, and company leaders to find a new employer who can use the soon-to-be-vacant plant space instead.
Those closures followed waning demand and soaring inflation.
Tyson reported better-than-expected quarterly earnings in February, with first-quarter earnings of $0.69 per share compared to analyst estimates of $0.41 per share. Income rose by 0.4 percent year-over-year to $13.32 billion.
Union Says Workers Need Compensation
Responding to the announced closure, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in a statement that Tyson Foods employees, the community in Perry, and pork producers across the entire state will have the full support of the local government in the months leading up to the plant closure and after.“Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Workforce Development are already engaged,” Ms. Reynolds said. “We stand ready to assist impacted employees with finding new jobs in the area as soon as possible.”
The Republican governor also noted the roughly 60,000 job openings currently available on IowaWorks.gov, the state’s largest jobs bank.
However, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1149, which represents 700 to 800 of the Perry plant’s employees, stated that it believes that Tyson Foods owes employees more following the unexpected closure and subsequent job losses.
“We feel that Tyson owes that community [Perry] and the employees some kind of compensation, some kind of training, some kind of benefit for a lot of those families,” the union’s president, Roger Kail, said in a statement to the Des Moines Register.
“We’re definitely going to be asking for some kind of compensation for these people. We’re going to try and get as much as we can get for these people because they deserve it,” Mr. Kail said.
Tyson Foods didn’t respond by press time to a request by The Epoch Times for further comment.
