As stated Wisconsin State Journal, Doug Leikness, president of the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 538, the Tyson plant workers’ union, said that on Thursday, he met with company officials and was informed that the plant in Jefferson is shutting on June 2016. The decision would affect about 480 people in Chicago and 400 at Jefferson, Tyson Foods said in a statement. “This affects the lives of our team members and their families, making it a very hard decision”. He said that the company eventually chose to shift production and equipment to more modern and efficient locations to better serve the customers. The plant was sold to Doskocil Foods in 1985, which later became Foodbrands America and was acquired by IBP, inc.in 1997.
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We rate TYSON FOODS INC (TSN) a BUY. The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its solid stock price performance, growth in earnings per share, revenue growth, attractive valuation levels and good cash flow from operations. The Chicago plant makes prepared foods for the hospitality industry. Tyson said the plant closings will enable the company to transfer production to a few of its other prepared foods operations.
According to Tyson Foods, the planned closures are due to a combination of factors including changing product needs, the age of both facilities and prohibitive cost of renovations, as well as the distance of the Chicago plant from its raw material supply base.
Since Tyson’s acquisition of IBP, Tyson has encountered clashes at the Jefferson plant in regard to worker issues and labor unions. The plant, which made meals exclusively for airlines, now produces tempura chicken, meatballs, crepes, omelets, sauces and chicken cordon bleu.
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Last month, Tyson announced that it would raise the per hour wages for 34,000 employees in its chicken plants in the U.S.to attract and retain is workers. The Company also processes live fed cattle and hogs and fabricate dressed beef and pork carcasses into primal and sub-primal meat cuts, case ready beef and pork and fully cooked meats.
