"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."