Source:  Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE.COM, 9/30/10

Two dozen employees were laid off at a Tyson Foods Inc. poultry processing plant in Harrisonburg, Va., a Tyson spokesman confirmed to Meatingplace.

The laid-off employees are about 5 percent of the 500-person workforce at the facility. Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson explained in an e-mailed statement that the poultry complex relies on workers to go to area farms to collect and load birds for shipment to the processing plant, and that Tyson had decided to hire an outside contractor to handle that responsibility.

However, the people affected were given an opportunity to apply for jobs with the contract chicken catching company, as well as apply for openings at Tyson’s Harrisonburg plant,” Mickelson said.
Employees were notified of the layoffs on Sept. 1, and Sept. 24 was their last day at work.

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