By MELISSA GOLDIN (Associated Press)
Conservative influencers and politicians are urging people to boycott Tyson Foods after untrue statements circulated online claiming the multinational meat producer intends to hire 52,000 individuals who arrived in the U.S. illegally.
One social media post with about 20,000 likes and 11,700 shares as of Friday claims, “Tyson is closing its facility in Perry, Iowa and laying off its 1,200 workers. Instead, they plan to hire thousands of new illegals in states like New York. #BoycottTyson. Pass it on.”
However, the company, like many others that have faced boycott demands due to allegations of “woke” policies, has no such intentions.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
CLAIM: Tyson Foods is hiring 52,000 people who entered the U.S. illegally.
THE FACTS: According to a company spokesperson, Tyson Foods currently has no plans to hire 52,000 workers in the U.S. Additionally, all of its employees must have legal authorization to work in the country.
“That is absolutely false,” Tyson stated in response to the online claims.
Tyson clarified to The Associated Press that it typically has 5-8% of positions available in its 500 U.S. locations at any given time, and these are open to qualified individuals who are legally authorized to work in the United States.
“Tyson Foods strongly opposes illegal immigration,” the company declared in a written statement.
According to Tyson, the company’s U.S. workforce consists of around 120,000 employees, which means there are currently approximately 6,000 to 9,600 open positions.
In 2022, Tyson made a commitment to hire 2,500 refugees in the U.S. within three years as part of the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a coalition of over 400 major multinational companies. Refugees, who are individuals facing persecution and were granted entry to the U.S. while residing outside the country, are authorized to work as soon as they arrive in the U.S.
People granted asylum in the U.S. also face persecution, but they applied for protection after entering the country. Those with pending applications typically qualify for work authorization under an Employment Authorization Document, or EAD, 180 days after filing their asylum application. Anyone already granted asylum can legally work without an EAD.
Both refugees and individuals granted asylum have legal status in the U.S. Tyson stated that approximately 42,000 of its current U.S. employees are noncitizens with work authorization. According to Haiwen Langworth, a spokesperson for the Tent Partnership for Refugees, Tyson's commitment for 2022 includes individuals with legal refugee status, as well as others such as asylum seekers or grantees with permission to work.
The inaccurate claims seem to originate from a Bloomberg article from March 11 about Tyson’s commitment to the Tent Partnership for Refugees. In the article, Garrett Dolan, associate director of human resources at Tyson, mentioned that the company plans to hire 52,000 individuals for factory positions in 2024. Tyson stated that Dolan “misspoke.”
Bloomberg affirmed to the AP that it supports its reporting.
Scripps News published its own article two days later, reporting that Tyson wants to employ 52,000 asylum seekers for factory jobs. The outlet has retracted the story due to serious factual inaccuracies, stating it was unable to verify that number. But false claims about the figure spread widely on social media.
The reports led to calls to boycott Tyson, which is not the first company to face opposition to what are often described as “woke” policies. Bud Light sales dropped last year following conservative backlash over the beer giant’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Target made changes to its LGBTQ+ merchandise before last year’s Pride month after customers confronted workers and tipped over displays.
Rebekah Wolf, senior policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, told the AP that U.S. companies relying on immigrant labor is not new, especially in industries such as meat processing with roles considered undesirable by many U.S. citizens.
Wolf stated that hiring people willing to take jobs that are not particularly attractive to others is vital to the economy.
She mentioned that the U.S. has strong policies to ensure that big companies like Tyson are employing people who are authorized to work in the United States. She also noted that many employers have recently struggled to fill jobs due to labor shortages.
Tyson announced on March 11 that it is shutting down a pork processing facility in Perry, Iowa, the town’s largest employer. The company did not provide details, saying the closure was due to specific business reasons and not related to its hiring efforts at other facilities. The announcement came after the company closed a plant in both Virginia and Arkansas in 2023 and consolidated its corporate operations the year prior.
Although Tyson refused to comment on how many of the Perry plant workers are non-citizens, it stated in a release that any insinuation that it would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false.
The company also noted that it has encouraged the Perry employees to apply for other positions at Tyson.
Some on social media claimed that following the Perry closure, Tyson will be hiring in New York, where there has been a large influx of migrants. However, Tyson clarified that it does not operate in New York nor does it have any plans to do so.
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This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
