Fact check: Is Tyson closing factories due to immigrant workers not showing up?

1. Summary of the results

Based on the comprehensive analysis of multiple sources, there is no evidence supporting the claim that Tyson is closing factories due to immigrant workers not showing up. Instead, the sources reveal a completely different narrative:

• Tyson's actual reasons for closures are economic and operational, not related to worker attendance. The Perry, Iowa plant closure was attributed to the facility being old and inefficient ^[1], while other closures were linked to financial struggles in the pork industry ^[2].
• Tyson is actively hiring immigrant workers, not losing them. Multiple sources indicate that Tyson is recruiting asylum seekers and refugees to fill labor shortages ^{[1] [3] [4] [5]}. The company has been hiring migrants from New York for jobs in Tennessee and using this population to fill unpleasant jobs that others don't want ^{[4] [5]}.
• When immigrant workers have faced employment issues, it's been due to legal status changes, not absenteeism. One source mentions termination of immigrant workers at a New London facility due to revocation of their legal status ^[6], not because they failed to show up for work.

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks crucial context about Tyson's actual business operations and labor practices:

• Labor shortage reality: Tyson appears to be addressing significant labor shortages by actively recruiting immigrant workers, suggesting the company needs more workers, not fewer ^{[3] [4] [5]}.
• Community impact: The closures have had devastating effects on local communities, with towns like Perry, Iowa struggling with economic recovery after losing their largest employer ^[7]. Chicken farmers have been left with massive loans and uncertainty following plant closures ^[8].
• Industry-wide challenges: The closures appear to be part of broader financial struggles in the meat processing industry, particularly in pork production ^[2], rather than workforce-related issues.

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question contains a fundamentally false premise that appears to conflate or misrepresent several separate issues:

• Reversal of causation: The question suggests immigrant workers are causing closures through absenteeism, when evidence shows Tyson is actively seeking to hire more immigrant workers to address labor needs ^{[3] [4] [5]}.
• Scapegoating narrative: The framing potentially promotes a misleading narrative that blames immigrant workers for corporate decisions that are actually driven by economic and operational factors ^{[1] [2]}.
• Conflation of separate events: The question may be mixing legitimate plant closures due to business reasons with separate controversies about Tyson's immigrant hiring practices, creating a false causal relationship between unrelated issues.

This type of framing could benefit those who seek to promote anti-immigrant sentiment by falsely attributing corporate restructuring decisions to immigrant worker behavior, when the evidence shows the opposite relationship exists.