UFCW Comments on USDA’s Plan to Pay Small Meat Processors During Livestock Shortage

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), which represents hundreds of thousands of meatpacking and food processing workers across North America, released a statement in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) plan to pay smaller beef processing companies as the industry navigates the smallest cattle herd in decades.

UFCW International President Milton Jones said:

"The shortage of cattle is being felt across the meatpacking industry by big and small processors alike, and it is costing jobs. Tyson Foods closed its plant in Lexington, Nebraska, putting hundreds of people out of work and leaving a rural area looking for answers. Offering band-aid solutions to only certain processors ignores the underlying problem of a historic livestock shortage that risks the livelihoods of thousands of workers who rely on union meatpacking jobs in their communities.

"Union jobs in meatpacking pay the highest wages in the industry and are at the center of many rural economies. The USDA must help all meat processors during this time by offering a meaningful, long-term solution to herd size, or else more plants will shutter and leave working families without stable union jobs."