Iowa mayor warns of ‘damage’ from Tyson Foods cutting plant and 1,300 jobs – but says meat-packer is NOT replacing American workers with cheaper migrants

An Iowa mayor has spoken of the economic ‘damage’ caused by Tyson Foods closing its pork plant and axing 1,300 workers, saying he’s scrambling to find new jobs to keep his city afloat.

Dirk Cavanaugh, mayor of Perry, said Tyson’s departure sent shockwaves across his city of 8,000 people, where a local economy of plant workers, hog farmers and feed suppliers was under threat.

But Cavanaugh said he did not believe Tyson was laying off US workers for cheaper foreigners, as many of those working at the soon-to-be-shuttered plant were themselves migrants.

Tyson, the city’s biggest employer, earlier this month said it would shutter its aging plant in Perry this June. Some employees are being offered jobs at the $54 billion firm’s other plants in Iowa.

Conservatives have led a boycott of Tyson over the layoffs, calling the company unpatriotic for shedding American workers while announcing plans to hire some 42,000 asylum seekers.

‘I don’t really have time to mess with speculation, because I don’t think it really helps us with our situation here,’ Cavanaugh told DailyMail.com about the controversy.

‘Saying: ‘They’re closing down and firing everybody here to hire migrant workers,’ when they’ve already got a lot of them in town here that they’re firing, I don’t see where that makes any sense for them.’

Cavanaugh said Tyson’s Perry plant uses translators to manage a diverse workforce of Latino, Caribbean and African migrants, who represent a significant chunk of its 1,276 staff.

Tyson brought many workers to the town and helped them get labor permits over recent years, he added. At least 100 such migrant families were brought to Perry in the past six months.

Cavanaugh said some recent newcomers would likely leave Perry when the plant shutters.

But more established migrants, including those with children at school, should be able to find alternate jobs in a tight labor market, he said.

Others could continue living in Perry and commute to De Moines for work, he added.

He said he was looking for a company to take over the meat-packing plant once Tyson leaves, and there were other plans for business expansion in the city that also has a concrete plant and clothing factory.

‘We’re optimistic and hopeful that we’re gonna get through this,’ said Cavanaugh.

‘But if we don’t find anybody by June, and it’s not looking promising, then the outlook will be more dim … then we can assess where the holes are, and do additional things to try to minimize the damage.’

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, is set to meet Tyson officials to discuss the closure this week.

A mobile job center is visiting the plant to help workers find work and file unemployment claims.

Tyson, which is based in Springdale, Arkansas, says it’s not cutting American jobs to hire migrants, and that it only recruits newcomers with valid work permits.

‘Any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire immigrant workers is completely false,’ Tyson said in a statement.

The company declined DailyMail.com’s requests for an interview.

Conservatives have panned Tyson for shuttering plants in Iowa, Virginia, Arkansas, and Indiana, in recent months

The company is meanwhile trying to hire 42,000 asylum seekers and other immigrants, including through job fairs in New York, where many migrants end up, a Tyson official recently told Bloomberg.

It offers recruits $16.50 an hour work, paid-for immigration lawyers to help them get work papers, and other perks.

The company has in recent weeks hired dozens of asylum seekers from Venezuela, Mexico, and Colombia at a job fair in New York City.

They travelled to work at its poultry plant in Humboldt, Tennessee.

Tyson seeks to double its number of immigrant employees to 84,000 this year, including roles at this plant in Springdale, Arkansas, said its corporate responsibility boss Garrett Dolan.

The meat-packer already employs about 42,000 immigrants among its 120,000-strong US workforce.

Meat-packing plants are undesirable places to work, and Tyson says it has lots of vacancies to fill amid a low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.

It cooperates with the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a nonprofit, to hire thousands of them.

Conservatives on social media say the company is unpatriotic.

They have called for a boycott of Tyson and its various foods brands, which include Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, and Aidells.

Florida Republican congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna accused Tyson of ‘modern-day slavery.’

The $79 million American Conservative Values Fund said it had divested from Tyson and would not buy any more stock in the company.

America First Legal, a conservative action group launched by former Trump administration officials, warned Tyson that it could be breaking the law by favoring foreign-born workers over Americans.

‘It is ILLEGAL under federal law to discriminate against American citizens based on their citizenship in favor of non-citizens of any kind when it comes to employment,’ the legal action group posted online.

The claims against Tyson play into fears that Democrats, globalists, and big corporations are encouraging migrants to flow into the US as part of a ‘great replacement’ of American workers and voters.

They raise tough questions for Tyson’s $13 million-a-year CEO Donnie King, who has led the firm since 2021, during which time it has funded the campaign chests of President Joe Biden, Nikki Haley and others, according to Open Secrets.