Meat and poultry giant Tyson Foods has denied laying off U.S. workers and hiring thousands of migrants as part of an ongoing boycott.
Activists had urged consumers to stop buying their products due to factory closures in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas, Indiana and Missouri.
They said Tyson worked to hire asylum seekers in New York, offering them $16.50 an hour and free immigration lawyers, accusing the company of abandoning native-born workers. in the United States for the benefit of cheaper migrant labor.
In a statement, the company said: “In recent days, there has been a lot of misinformation in the media about our company, and we feel compelled to set the record straight.
“Any insinuation that we are cutting jobs in the United States to hire immigrant workers is completely false.”
Tyson is seeking to double its number of immigrant employees to 84,000 this year, including at its Springdale, Arkansas, plant.
Tyson Foods brands include Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright and Aidells.
In a statement, the company said it wanted to set the record straight and that the claims made were completely false.
Their statement continues: “Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration. Today, Tyson Foods employs 120,000 people in the United States, all of whom must be legally authorized to work in this country.
“We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anyone legally capable is welcome to apply for open job openings.”
Conservatives on social media say the company is unpatriotic and have called for a boycott of Tyson and its various food brands, which include Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright and Aidells.
Tom Carter, president and co-founder of the ACVF, said Tyson had alienated U.S. consumers who were worried about the influx of migrants across the border with Mexico.
The case highlights fears about migration across the U.S.-Mexico border and the fact that asylum seekers are replacing Americans, particularly in the meat processing sector and in d other undesirable jobs, in a context of record unemployment rates.
Due to the boycott, conservative fund manager Bill Flaig, CEO and co-founder of the $79 million American Conservative Values Fund (ACVF), told DailyMail.com he had divested from Tyson and would no longer purchase shares of the company.
The move “exposes their shareholders to backlash related to one of the most controversial political issues of the day,” Flaig said.
“I’m not sure other institutional managers will follow the Tyson boycott, but politically conservative investors realize they can fight the liberal takeover of America with their investments,” he said. told DailyMail.com.
The case highlights fears about migration across the U.S.-Mexico border and the fact that asylum seekers are replacing Americans, particularly in the meat processing sector.
Conservatives have called on social media for a boycott of Tyson and its various food brands
Bill Flaig, CEO and co-founder of the $79 million American Conservative Values Fund (ACVF), says he has divested from Tyson and will no longer buy shares of the ‘woke’ company .
Tyson announced last week that it would close its pork plant in Perry, Iowa, this summer, putting 1,276 people out of work in a town of just 8,000.
About half of the factory’s workers are Latino, according to local media.
Last May, Tyson closed two facilities in Virginia and Arkansas that employed more than 1,600 people.
In April, he announced plans to cut 10 percent of corporate jobs and 15 percent of executives.
The meat processor already employs about 42,000 immigrants among its 120,000 employees in the United States and is seeking to bolster that figure by cooperating, among other efforts, with Tent Partnership for Refugees, a nonprofit organization.
“We would like to employ 42,000 more people if we can find them,” Garrett Dolan, who leads Tyson’s social efforts, told Bloomberg recently.
In recent weeks, the company has hired dozens of asylum seekers from Venezuela, Mexico and Colombia at a job fair in New York. They went to work at his poultry plant in Humboldt, Tennessee.
According to Dolan, asylum seekers fill gaps in factories with high employee turnover: the company needs to fill 52,000 jobs this year.
Executives offer pay starting at $16.50 an hour, with paid immigration attorneys and other benefits.
A large portion of the new hires “will come from refugees and immigrants, so we’re thinking strategically about that,” Dolan said.
Asylum seekers cannot work upon entering the United States and generally do not obtain permits until 180 days after applying for legal status.
Tyson is the largest U.S. meat and poultry company, based on sales, which fell 0.8% to $52,881 million last year.
Executives offer pay starting at $16.50 an hour, with paid immigration attorneys and other benefits. Migrants entering the United States are seen here
Tyson’s pork plant in Perry, Iowa, is the latest to be mothballed, with 1,300 jobs lost.
Tyson CEO Donnie King, who earns $13 million a year, has led the company since 2021.
Workers, including many Latinos, have protested Tyson plant closures, such as the one in Van Buren, Arkansas, in April 2023.
Many wait years before their first immigration court hearing to decide their asylum case, during which time they can work.
In an effort to help its migrant employees, Tyson has spent millions of dollars hiring immigration lawyers and provides paid time off to attend court hearings.
Many also benefit from temporary housing, on-site childcare, transportation and English lessons.
Tyson agreed in 2022 to hire 2,500 refugees under the Tent program.
The company increased that figure last year by 150 hires, including 50 Afghan refugees to work in Arkansas, including Fayetteville, Springdale and Bentonville.
The boycott underscores fears that Americans are losing their jobs to economic migrants from abroad, who are driving down wages for blue-collar workers.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that between July and August 2023, there was a staggering decrease of 1.2 million native-born people in the labor force.
In contrast, some 688,000 jobs were filled by foreign-born workers, underscoring the difference between President Joe Biden’s migration policies and Donald Trump’s tough stance at the border.