An Iowa mayor has spoken of the economic “damage” caused by Tyson Foods closing its pork plant and laying off 1,300 workers, saying he is struggling to find new jobs to keep his city afloat.
Dirk Cavanaugh, Perry’s mayor, said Tyson’s departure sent shockwaves through his city of 8,000, where a local economy of plant workers, hog farmers and feed suppliers was under threat.
But Cavanaugh said he did not believe Tyson was laying off American workers for cheaper foreigners, since many of those working at the soon-to-close plant were immigrants.
Tyson, the city’s largest employer, said earlier this month that it would close its former plant in Perry in June. Some employees are offered jobs at the $54 billion company’s other plants in Iowa.
Dirk Cavanaugh, mayor of Perry, says Tyson’s departure is a problem for his city, but he stops short of saying the firm favors immigrants over American workers.
Tyson’s pork plant in Perry, Iowa, is the latest to be mothballed, with 1,300 jobs lost.
Conservatives have led a boycott of Tyson over the layoffs, calling the company unpatriotic for laying off American workers and announcing plans to hire some 42,000 asylum seekers.
“I don’t really have time to get into speculation, because I don’t think it really helps us with our situation here,” Cavanaugh told DailyMail.com of the controversy.
‘To say, ‘They’re closing down and laying off everyone who is here to hire immigrant workers,’ when there are already a lot of them in the city that they’re laying off, I don’t see where that makes any sense to them. .’
Cavanaugh said Tyson’s plant in Perry uses translators to manage a diverse workforce of Latino, Caribbean and African immigrants, who make up a significant portion of its staff of 1,276.
Tyson brought many workers to the city and helped them obtain work permits in recent years, he added. At least 100 of these immigrant families were brought to Perry in the last six months.
Cavanaugh said some newcomers would likely leave Perry when the plant closed.
Tyson is recruiting workers among the influx of immigrants to New York City, which is struggling to accommodate the new arrivals.
Tyson seeks to double its number of immigrant employees to 84,000 this year, including positions at this Springdale, Arkansas, plant
But more established immigrants, including those with children in school, should be able to find alternative jobs in a tight labor market, he said.
Others might continue living in Perry and commute to De Moines for work, he added.
He said he was looking for a company to take over the meatpacking plant once Tyson left, and that there were other business expansion plans in the city that also has a concrete plant and a clothing factory.
“We are optimistic and hopeful that we will get through this,” Cavanaugh said.
“But if we don’t find anyone by June, and things don’t look promising, then the outlook will be bleaker… then we can assess where the holes are and do additional things to try to minimize the damage.”
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, will meet with Tyson officials to discuss the closure this week.
A mobile employment center visits the plant to help workers find jobs and file unemployment claims.
Tyson is the largest meat and poultry company in the United States, in terms of sales, which fell 0.8 percent to $52.881 million last year.
Tyson, based in Springdale, Arkansas, says it is not eliminating American jobs to hire immigrants and only recruits newcomers with valid work permits.
“Any suggestion that we would eliminate American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false,” Tyson said in a statement.
The company declined interview requests from DailyMail.com.
Conservatives have criticized Tyson for closing plants in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas and Indiana in recent months.
Meanwhile, the company is trying to hire 42,000 asylum seekers and other immigrants, including through job fairs in New York, where many immigrants end up, a Tyson official recently told Bloomberg.
It offers recruits $16.50 an hour of work, paid immigration attorneys to help them obtain work documents and other benefits.
In recent weeks, the company has hired dozens of asylum seekers from Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia at a job fair in New York City.
Conservatives on social media called for a boycott of Tyson and its various food brands.
Tyson Foods brands include Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright and Aidells.
They traveled to work at their poultry plant in Humboldt, Tennessee.
Tyson seeks to double its number of immigrant employees to 84,000 this year, including positions at this plant in Springdale, Arkansas, said its corporate responsibility chief, Garrett Dolan.
The meatpacker already employs about 42,000 immigrants among its 120,000-person U.S. workforce.
Meatpacking plants are undesirable places to work, and Tyson says it has many vacancies to fill amid a low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.
It cooperates with the nonprofit Tent Partnership for Refugees to hire thousands of them.
Conservatives on social media say the company is unpatriotic.
They have called for a boycott of Tyson and its various food brands, including Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright and Aidells.
Anna Paulina Luna says Tyson wants to hire ‘illegals’ who are too afraid of deportation to ask questions
Tyson CEO Donnie King, who makes $13 million a year, has led the company since 2021
Florida Republican Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna accused Tyson of “modern slavery.”
The $79 million American Conservative Values Fund said it had divested from Tyson and would not buy any more shares in the company.
America First Legal, a conservative action group launched by former Trump administration officials, warned Tyson that he could be breaking the law by favoring foreign-born workers over Americans.
“It is ILLEGAL under federal law to discriminate against U.S. citizens based on their citizenship in favor of noncitizens of any kind when it comes to employment,” the legal action group posted online.
The accusations against Tyson reflect fears that Democrats, globalists and big corporations are encouraging immigrants to flow into the United States as part of a “great replacement” of American workers and voters.
They raise tough questions for Tyson’s $13 million-a-year CEO Donnie King, who has led the firm since 2021, during which time he has bankrolled the campaign coffers of President Joe Biden, Nikki Haley and others. according to Open Secrets.