Tyson Foods Flexes Corporate Muscle, Nebraska Town Pays Price
Tyson Foods, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, announces the shutdown of its Lexington beef plant, gutting a community that literally built itself around the facility. We’re told it’s about 'efficiency,' but critics might wonder if it’s more about maximizing shareholder profits by squeezing labor and shifting operations to non-union states, much like their closures last year in Missouri and
Iowa. (Remember when corporations were 'people' who cared about communities? Now they're just 'markets' to exploit.) While this Nebraska town faces economic devastation, no emergency federal aid package is being prepared for the workers, no impassioned speeches from politicians about protecting American jobs in Congress. Unlike the near-instant, bipartisan consensus for massive aid packages to
certain foreign allies, the plight of 3,200 American workers seems to escape the urgency radar. One might question if the 'threat to national security' only applies when it involves distant conflicts, not the very real economic insecurity destabilizing communities right here at home.