Chicken Giant Making More “Fowl” Play
Tyson Foods Seeks to Muzzle Poultry Worker Advocates

Chicago – Tyson Foods Inc., subpoenaed several organizations that advocate for poultry workers–hundreds of whom charged the food giant with violation of wage and hour laws in 1999. The legal action occurs just as Tyson Foods, the largest poultry processing company in the world, seeks to purchase IBP–one of the nation’s largest meat processors. Tyson earned $7 billion in sales last fiscal year.

The Chicago-based Interfaith Worker Justice, along with Delmarva Poultry Justice Alliance, Arkansas Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, the National Contract Poultry Growers Association, the Public Justice Center, Inc., and the Wilson Center for Public Research, Inc. filed a joint motion for protective order in Alabama’s U.S. District Court and are awaiting the judge’s decision.

“This use of subpoena power is not how you work in good faith to improve conditions for workers,” said Kim Bobo, director of the Interfaith Worker Justice, one of the worker advocates.

Even though the Interfaith Committee is not part of the lawsuit, Tyson demanded all information in its possession related to the poultry industry, including “all documents that refer or related to” Tyson and seven other poultry companies, legal documents, government reports, surveys, and all “verbal and written” communications with any “federal, state or local government agencies.”

“Tyson would love for us to spend weeks digging up all this information, instead of advocating for workers. But regardless of the judge’s ruling, we will continue to advocate for poultry workers,” said Ms. Bobo. “Tyson’s motto is, ‘It’s what your family deserves.’ Why won’t they give their own workers the pay they not only deserve, but earned?”

The June 1999 lawsuit (Fox v. Tyson Foods, Inc.) charged Tyson with a series of with a series of wage and hour violations:

• Illegally forcing poultry processors to work off-the-clock
• Failing to pay them for required work on the production line.
• Failing to pay workers for the time taken to put on, take off, and clean required safety and sanitary gear in the morning, at breaks and at the end of the day.

According to the lawsuit, many Tyson employees are working an hour or more each day without pay. It is alleged that as a result of these acts, Tyson takes nearly $100 million a year from the pockets of poultry workers, who earn average wages that leave them below the poverty line for a family of four.

The Interfaith Worker Justice, and its over 60 affiliates nationwide, educates, organizes, and mobilizes the religious community on issues and campaigns that will improve wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers, especially low-wage workers.

For more information about the Tyson lawsuit or the national poultry worker justice campaign contact Toure Muhammad of the Interfaith Worker Justice at (773) 728- 8400 x 24 or visit their website at www.nationalinterfaith.org.