Although unexpected, the recent announcement of a delayed closure for Tyson Foods in Emporia could mean some temporary relief for both employees and city officials.
That was the thought of Emporia City Manager Trey Cocking on the latest installment of KVOE’s Monthly Q&A With Trey Monday morning. The program aired just hours after news broke that the Emporia Tyson plant’s closure, which was originally set to close up operations entirely this past Friday, will be a phased closure with operations set to end by June 27.
That’s according to a letter that was sent by Tyson leadership to the city of Emporia dated February 10 that arrived late Friday according to Cocking.
The Tyson letter says it plans to retain over 430 workers for work related to the plant’s upcoming closure, with the final day of oeprations now set for June 27. Tyson says it plans to retain 220 employees until March 28, with much smaller numbers of other retention staff being let go starting this upcoming Saturday and continuing on a weekly or semi-weekly basis through the new closure date.
Tyson says workers will be permanently terminated after the last day of work listed. Those that have asked for extensions have been notified. Affected team members do not have the right to take another employee’s job because there is no union at the Emporia plant.
Cocking says while it is still dissapointing the plant will be closing immenently, the one positive for employees is that it will allow them more time to “get their affairs in order” whether that means applying for new jobs or filing for unemployment benefits in the coming months.
From a city perspective, Cocking says the phased approach also temporarily will relieve some stress for city leadership when it comes to the plant at 2101 West Sixth.
Cocking says in terms of what the future holds for the plant, that will be up to Tyson as the city has no say over potential tennants or owners of the facility and likely will not have any knowledge of a future sale of the property until a deal is close to or already done.
Since the closure announcement of Tyson, several other local businesses have made similar announcements in recent months leading to a great deal of negative public opinion. Over the last two months, city leadership has expressed sympathies for those effected and maintained confidence that the city will “rebound” from these difficult times.
During both Monday’s and January’s Q&A segments, KVOE News paid special attention to this message from city officials and aksed the question “When will we start to see the bounce back?” Monday, Cocking stated it will likely be a “Multi-year process” saying that while he is certain the city will recover, the exact time frame is not clear.
Not helping matters is the high amount of uncertainty at the Federal level which Cocking says has significant implications for local issues.
The local Tyson operation had over 800 workers at the time the closure was first announced in early December. Tyson chose to bolster its operations at its Holcomb plant, offering 200 positions there. The decision to completely close down the Emporia plant comes after Tyson’s decision to end its cold storage facility operations in 2020 and to transition from cattle slaughter operations to food processing work in 2008, a move that cut the Emporia plant’s workforce by more than 1,000 staffers.
Tyson executives have not responded to KVOE News questions about a range of matters including potential buyers, plant maintenance and upkeep, number of Emporia workers transferring to Holcomb and other items.
