Tyson Foods announced to cease operation in two of its plants, leading to 880 unemployed workers

Tyson Foods has been operating for many years and has delivered satisfying frozen goods to every household. Due to some circumstances, some of its plants need to be closed decreasing hundreds of workforce. 

According to Reuters, the biggest U.S. meat processing Tyson Foods Inc said that it has decided to stop operations at two of its plants situated in the United States, which will result in about 880 employees losing their jobs.

"It's a blow to the community. It was a surprise to us," Jefferson Mayor Dale Oppermann said.

The company confirmed that it expects two of its plants pepperoni plant in Jefferson, Wisconsin and a prepared foods facility in Chicago, Illinois to close down by the second half of the year ending Oct. 1.

On Thursday, Tyson claimed about 880 employees, including about 480 at Chicago and about 400 at Jefferson, would be affected through this act.

Timothy Freitag said,"Although it won't initially happen, it will start to happen by spring summer 2016,".

According to Fox6Now, the closure is aimed to improve the overall performance of its prepared foods business. Tyson Foods has other prepared foods facilities, where it can use the available production capacity. However, this decision of closure did not primarily influenced Tyson Foods' other Chicago facilities or offices.

"We examined many options before we turned down this road," said Donnie King, president of North American operations for Tyson Foods. "This affects the lives of our team members and their families, making it a very difficult decision. But after long and careful consideration, we've determined we can better serve our customers by shifting production and equipment to more modern and efficient locations."

There are multiple of factors, which became the basis of the closure. The major reasons include changing product needs, the age of both facilities and the prohibitive cost of renovations, as well as the distance of the Chicago plant from its raw material supply base.

But as reported in Nasdaq, the company has a solution to a large number of anticipated unemployment as the affected workers will be courteously directed to apply for other openings within the company.

Chicago plant was opened by Tyson Foods in 1994. Originally, it was a private company which used to make meals exclusively for airlines. Currently, the dishes produced there include Tempura chicken, meatballs, crepes, omelets, soups, sauces and Chicken Cordon Bleu.

In 2001, the Jefferson facility was a part of Tyson Foods' acquisition of IBP, inc., which produces sliced pepperoni and ham for pizza toppings, as well as sliced pepperoni and salami for deli and foodservice applications.