Cargill Forced to Lay off Workers at Arkansas Plant

[The Straight Story]

Cargill Forced to Lay off Workers at Arkansas Plant


The recent turkey meat recall has forced lay-offs at Cargill's plant in Springdale, AR. A Cargill official has confirmed that about 130 workers will be laid off from the Springdale plant and a recent turkey recall is to blame.

The layoffs were effective immediately. Mike Martin, the company's director of communications, says the plant has not produced any ground turkey since September 9 and the plant has had trouble "finding things for people to do."

Company officials held a meeting on 3 October to determine how to handle the lack of production and where to place workers. Some of the workers from the company's ground turkey production line have been moved to other parts of the plant.

...

The company hopes to be able to rehire workers once the USDA gives them approval to resume ground turkey production.

http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=2125&yr=2011

[gateley]

1. I hate Cargill, but feel so bad for the workers. Can they get

unemployment?? :(

[IamK]

2. yes they can...

its what unemployment was made for... most will get it as long as they have the hours to qualify

[gateley]

3. Good. And actually it sounds as though Cargill might have

been trying to keep them working as long as possible, which is hard to believe.

[Scruffy1]

4. Cargill "forced"?

This just shows how bad the media is. No one is forcing Cargill, which has billions lying around to lay off anybody.
They just chose to do this instead of paying the workers for a work interruption that is beyond the control org the workers.

[pinboy3niner]

5. You'd think they were being 'forced' because of FDA if you didn't know it was a voluntary recall

And it looks like the reason they need FDA approval to resume production is because Cargill also is implementing voluntary 'corrective measures' to its processing (to prevent salmonella contamination occurring again), and it's those changes that will require approval.

Their August 3 press release gives more details:

Cargill initiates voluntary ground turkey recall; public health concern key to decision; ground turkey production suspended at Arkansas plant
http://www.cargill.com/news/releases/2011/NA3047807.jsp