Tyson Foods is closing several chicken processing facilities across the United States, and we are already starting to see the impact on those producers. The Arkansas Farm Bureau takes us to one operation that just found out their contracts are being canceled.
The Tyson plants closing are located in North Little Rock, Arkansas; Corydon, Indiana; Dexter, Missouri; and Noel, Missouri. In a release, Tyson said they plan to move operations to other facilities in less remote areas by the end of 2024.
The Arkansas Farmers Union is committed to helping those impacted by the plant closures.
“We will work with the appropriate state and federal agencies to protect the rights and livelihoods of the farmers who are affected,” says Eddie Todd, the vice president of the group. “This is another situation in which corporate monopolies have devastated the backbone of this great country, that being the American family farmer.”
In addition to the closure of several plants, Tyson also closed two corporate offices in April. Located in Chicago and South Dakota, the sweeping staffing changes eliminated an estimated 15 percent of the company’s senior leadership and 10 percent of its corporate workers.
In March, Tyson also announced they would be shuttering two other plants in Arkansas and Virginia, saying the move to other facilities would increase the company’s overall efficiency— part of their larger goal to reduce operational costs by $1 billion between 2022 and 2024. According to the Associated Press, Tyson pointed to steep inflation on labor, grain, and other inputs as the primary reason for the sweeping layoffs.
