"They Got Zero Notice": 2,500 Workers Laid Off as Tyson Foods Shutters Meatpacking Plant in Illinois

Tyson Foods, the United States’ largest meatpacking and processing company, shuttered a beef processing facility in Joslin, Illinois, last month, laying off more than 2,500 primarily immigrant workers “virtually overnight.” Although Tyson Foods CEO and President Donnie King made over $34 million last year, nearly 800 times more than the median Tyson worker, the company cites a historic 75-year low in the U.S. cattle herd as a primary reason for the closure. We speak to Caitlyn Clark, director of the group Essential Workers for Democracy, which is working to institute democratic reforms within the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), a labor union that represents more than a million workers across the United States. These workers include the former Tyson plant meatpackers, who worked in “some of the most dangerous jobs in America” while making “billions of dollars in profit for Tyson.” Clark ascribes the U.S. cattle shortage to climate change-induced drought in the American West, rising prices for diesel and fertilizer amid the U.S. war on Iran and years of corporate consolidation that has driven down profits for cattle ranchers. Since they were suddenly laid off, former Joslin plant workers have been protesting outside the shuttered plant, calling on Tyson “to extend their severance pay, and calling on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to intervene to help keep the plant open,” Clark tells us. “We need to take on the bosses and be serious about the level of inequality and exploitation that working people are facing today,” she adds. “Working people need more, they deserve more, and they’re ready to fight for it. It’s time that our union leadership catch up.” Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González. As we head into this Labor Day weekend, we turn now to the abrupt closure of a Tyson Foods beef processing plant in Joslin, Illinois. Twenty-five hundred workers lost their jobs with almost no notice. Many had worked at the plant for decades. The plant closed August 14th. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which represents more than 2,000 of the workers, said they received no advance notice from the company. On Thursday, dozens of laid-off workers protested at the Illinois state Capitol in Springfield, urging Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to reopen the plant under state ownership and provide relief to all affected workers. Tyson Foods also shuttered a facility in Utah, citing, quote, “historic cattle shortages” as the reason for the closures. The 75-year low of the U.S. cattle herd is due in part to drought, the rising cost of fertilizer and diesel due to the U.S. war in Iran, and years of industry consolidation. Workers held a rally in Joslin soon after the mass layoffs. They demanded Tyson increase their severance pay to at least six months of full compensation with benefits. Tyson Foods CEO and President Donnie King made over $34 million last year, nearly 800 times more than the median Tyson worker and double the average CEO-to-worker pay ratio among S&P, Standard & Poor’s, 500 companies. This is a clip of laid-off Tyson worker Ahoro Asselissime, who spent 11 years at the plant. He sent the message yesterday. AHORO ASSELISSIME: This closing make me a lot of stress. A lot of stress. Every day I have to think about it. I don’t sleep. Every day I have to apply the job. … It is difficult to get a job in Quad City here. It is very, very difficult. We lose our friends. Our income go down. And I want to talk. Eleven years at Tyson is not easy. One year at Tyson is not easy. Two weeks at Tyson is not easy. I think about our grandma, our daddies, who spent 26 years, 30 years, 35 years at Tyson. They spent all their life over there. Where? What company can take them? … Our governor, please, we want our job back. AMY GOODMAN: To talk more about this, we’re joined by Caitlyn Clark, director at Essential Workers for Democracy, her latest piece in Labor Notes headlined “'Treated Worse than Cattle': 2,500 Tyson Workers Laid Off, Plant Shutters Overnight.” She’s joining us here in New York. Talk about what this means, 2,500 people laid off at once. Many worked at this plant for decades. CAITLYN CLARK: Yeah, so, 2,500 workers were laid off virtually overnight. They got zero notice to the workers, to their union, their families or their community. Many of these workers, as you mentioned and as Ahoro mentioned, have worked at Tyson for 10, 20, some 30 years, doing some of the most dangerous jobs in America. Some have sustained cuts, chemical burns, repeated motion injuries. And through these years, they’ve made billions of dollars in profit for Tyson, which is one of the biggest meatpacking companies in the world. They’re part of what we call the Big Four meatpackers. They own 85% of all beef production in the United States. And the Big Four packers have played a huge role in the cattle shortage that we’re seeing today. So, Tyson has credited the cattle shortage for the reason for the closure. But, you know, what we’re seeing is, while there are cattle shortages due to climate change-induced droughts and the increased price of diesel and fertilizer due to the war on Iran, we’ve also seen a yearslong corporate consolidation in the meatpacking industry that’s led to alleged collusion between the Big Four packers to repress the prices that they pay to cattle producers for their livestock, in addition to repressing the wages that they pay to workers for their work in the meatpacking plants, and inflating the prices that they charge to consumers at the grocery store. So, after all this, you know, these workers are now looking for new employment. Many of them are losing their health insurance. And because a vast majority of them are immigrant workers, many of them, even though they are eligible to receive unemployment benefits, are afraid to apply for those benefits. And so, these workers have been organizing, protesting, organizing rallies to call on Tyson to extend their severance pay, and calling on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to intervene to help keep the plant open. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Caitlyn, isn’t the — isn’t the shutdown illegal? There’s a WARN requirement for employers of a minimum number of days that they must notify workers before shutting down. CAITLYN CLARK: Yes. So, that’s been under debate. The company has claimed that they will continue to pay workers severance pay until October, which would keep them in compliance with the WARN Act. But workers like Ahoro are receiving roughly half of their previous paychecks. So, you know, paychecks that used to be $900 or $1,000 are now much closer to $400 or $500 a week. So, that payment will continue for two months, until October, which the company is claiming will keep them in compliance with the WARN Act. On top of that, they have made a plant closure agreement with the union that will give the workers about one to four weeks of additional severance, depending on how long they worked there. But for workers who worked more than 10 years at Tyson, they’re only receiving four weeks of severance on top of the federally mandated severance pay that they’re receiving due to the WARN Act. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: You mentioned the union agreement. What has been the role of the union in this situation? And have they had meetings with the workers before signing such agreements? CAITLYN CLARK: Well, unfortunately, what we’ve heard from many workers on the ground is that they are disappointed with their local union’s signing of an agreement with Tyson that basically said the union is not going to be fighting the closure of the plant, which has led many workers to independent worker action and organizing to hold their own rallies and their own protest actions to call on Tyson to do better for the workers and to increase their severance pay. You know, this is, unfortunately, a very common reality for many members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. It’s a 1.2 million-member union that represents hundreds of thousands of meatpacking workers and retail grocery workers across the country who believe that they deserve, you know, a fighting union where members are in charge. That’s why we formed Essential Workers for Democracy. It’s a nationwide network of rank-and-file UFCW members who are fighting to build a stronger and a more democratic union from the bottom up, primarily through the right to vote for a top union leadership. We’ve seen what this looks like in other unions, like the United Auto Workers, that won the right to vote just a few years ago, elected new leadership, and then went on strike against the Big Three automakers in 2023. Part of those contract negotiations were fighting companies like Stellantis to reopen formerly closed plants. Now, that fight is still ongoing, but it demonstrates that rank-and-file union members and workers across the country are hungry to take on these companies for who they really are, that they don’t need, you know, partnerships with management, that we need to take on the bosses and be serious about the level of inequality and exploitation that working people are facing today. AMY GOODMAN: And the message of the workers, in this last 30 seconds, who were rallying in Joslin, in Springfield, as we move into Labor Day? CAITLYN CLARK: Mm-hmm. As we’re going into Labor Day, I think it’s an important reminder that working people in this country have never had their rights or their dignity handed to them by the bosses. It has to be organized for, it has to be fought for, and it can be won. When we look at labor history, we see that the eight-hour workday, the weekend, the 40-hour workweek, those are all due to the power of the labor movement, due to solidarity and strikes. And working people need more, they deserve more, and they’re ready to fight for it. It’s time that our union leadership catch up with them. AMY GOODMAN: Caitlyn Clark, director at Essential Workers for Democracy. We’ll link to your article, “'Treated Worse than Cattle': 2,500 Tyson Workers Laid Off, Plant Shutters Overnight.” Media Options