050122 Tyson To Idle About 400 Washington Workers

Wallula, WA - About 400 workers at the Tyson Foods Inc. beef plant in Wallula will be idled starting when the meatpacking giant will temporarily halt production at four other plants across the country in response to "unfavorable" market conditions.

Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson announced that it would temporarily suspend operations for "three to five weeks" for workers on the Wallula plant's evening shift, as well as at four other beef plants in Iowa, Nebraska and Idaho.

Workers will be paid for 32 hours per week for at least three weeks of the temporary shutdown, which is forced by a combination of "tight cattle supplies, lackluster domestic beef demand and the continued absence of key export markets," according to a company statement.

"This is a difficult decision," John Tyson, company chief executive and chairman, said in a news release. "However, we believe it's the right thing for us to do at the time, especially given the challenging market conditions and unfavorable operating margins our beef business continues to face."

American beef packers, which operate on very thin profit margins, have been hit hard since the December 2004 discovery of mad cow disease in the United States, which caused foreign trading partners including Japan and South Korea to shut off imports of American beef.

Also, the May 2003 discovery of mad cow disease in a Canadian cow led to the shutdown of Canadian cattle imports into the United States. That supply made up an important part of the business for Tyson and other meatpackers.

"Our plants have been running at less than 75 percent of capacity over the past two months, which is 10 to 15 percent below historical levels," Tyson said.

The temporary shutdown will idle about 2,100 workers at plants in Norfolk, Neb.; West Point, Neb.; Denison, Iowa, and Boise.

It also will cut weekly cattle slaughter for the world's largest meatpacking company by 25,000 to 30,000 head -- about 15 percent to 20 percent of its overall weekly production, said company spokesman Gary Mickelson.

At the Wallula plant, which employs about 1,600 people, about 400 evening shift workers will be sent home for three to five weeks, he said.

"We have every intention of resuming operations as soon as market conditions resume," Mickelson said. "We will be paying (workers) the equivalent of a 32- hour work week each of the next three weeks they are off the job. That's an indication of our desire to have them come back to work."

The company has also asked workers to take a week of paid vacation time during the temporary work suspension, he said.

For Wallula plant workers, who are members of Teamsters Union Local 556, it's likely they will be offered pay for 32 hours per week beyond the three weeks offered at other plants because of labor contract guarantees, said Lorene Scheer, Local 556 organizing director.

"Everyone's waiting to get more information" about the temporary shutdown, she said. Neither Scheer nor Tyson spokesman Mickelson could say how the temporary slowdown might affect a recent decision by the National Labor Relations Board, which has called for a vote in the coming months on a petition to decertify the union as labor representative for Wallula plant workers.

That petition was narrowly voted down in April 2004, but the NLRB ruled last month that another vote must be held because union representatives talked to workers as they waited in line to vote.

Tyson's temporary shutdown is just the latest in a series of plant closings and layoffs that have struck the beef industry in reaction to market disruptions caused by the discovery of mad cow disease in Canadian and U.S. cows, said Jeremy Russell, spokesman for the National Meat Association, an industry trade group.

"I know of at least one company that's closed its doors," he said -- Iowa Quality Beef, which suspended operations in August 2004.

Last month, meatpacker Swift & Co. announced that it would lay off 800 workers in Greeley, Colo., and Creekstone Farms Premium Beef said it would lay off 150 at a plant in Arkansas City, Kan.

Russell said he was hopeful that the Department of Agriculture will follow through on a recently announced plan to re-open the U.S. border to Canadian cattle in March, despite opposition that has arisen since a second case of mad cow disease in a Canadian cow was recently discovered.

Also, he said, "We really need to get the markets open abroad, starting with Japan."

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