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Swift meatpacking plant layoffs hit community hard
GREELEY, Colo. (AP)--Alvina Macias, a single mother of two boys, 16 and 5, is wondering how she will be able to afford Christmas presents.
Maricuz Zabala is wondering how she will be able to make the $1,143 monthly mortgage payments on the new house she shares with her mother, who collects Social Security; her daughter, who just had a baby; and her son-in-law, whose income won't cover the bills.
They are among some 800 Swift & Co. meatpacking plant workers who will be out of a job four days before Christmas, let go as the biggest employer in Greeley sees fewer cattle and shifts production to supermarket-ready foods.
The plant still will have about 1,700 workers, but the layoffs are a blow to northern Colorado, hard hit in the past several years by the high-tech downturn and the state's lagging economy. Many here worry a soft labor market will make it difficult if not impossible to find new jobs.
Macias, 38, applied for unemployment benefits Dec. 15. She said she has applied for jobs at several companies but none has shown interest in hiring her.
"I'm not upset. They just picked a very bad time to do it," she said in Spanish through an interpreter.
Swift, the nation's third-largest beef and pork producer, reported a $148.5 million, or 6 percent, increase in net sales for a total of $2.63 billion in the quarter that ended Aug. 29, the most recent for which figures are available. But earlier this year, ConAgra Foods Inc. sold feedlots that supplied about 40 percent of cattle processed at the plant. The new owner, Smithfield Foods Co., has no contract with Swift.
So many layoffs at one time cannot be absorbed in Greeley and surrounding communities, said Ron Klaphake, president of the Greeley/Weld Economic Development Action Partnership Inc.
He estimated the economic effects of the layoffs will exceed $35 million, including direct wages lost and the loss of economic activity stemming from those wages.
"It is going to hurt a lot," he said. "Supposedly there's a big economic recovery going on nationwide, but it's still tough up here."
Swift had anticipated 1,100 layoffs when it first announced changes to its meat production in October. The company said some employees may be rehired within 18 months, and up to 200 may be retained based on seniority to train employees working a new second shift that will produce "value-added" products, which can sell for three to four times the price of boxed beef.
When the possibility of layoffs was first raised two months ago, some workers quit or moved away, and others were hired by other meat-processing companies, said Fernando Rodriquez, the Swift plant director for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7.
Rodriquez, who worked in area meat processing plants for 14 years before going to work for the union in 1995, said the layoffs are the first he's ever seen in the industry.
He said he was hopeful the value-added products would be successful enough that Swift could add employees. Much will depend on the opening of international markets that closed to U.S. beef after mad cow disease was found in the country last year.
Meanwhile, the union is raising money from its 22,000 members around Colorado and Wyoming, and others worldwide, to help the laid-off workers. Weld County United Way set aside $10,000 for cash assistance for employees, and Swift added $25,000 to the fund.
Swift also is planning to rehire some workers as the value-added shift expands, and will rehire employees based on seniority when other jobs become free, spokesman Jim Herlihy said. The company also is looking for positions at its other plants around the country.
Rodriquez said many workers understand the company's needs and said there has been little anger against Swift. There is widespread frustration, though, because there are few jobs available in the area; the most recent unemployment rate for Weld County was 5.7 percent, down from 6 percent a year ago.
"Some of the membership say they wanted to go home anyway for Christmas," he said. "Some are living check to check with no savings. Those are the ones that are kind of mad, but they're a little more at ease with unemployment (benefits they will receive)."
Zabala, 45, has worked on the plant's packing line since October 2003. She said she hasn't yet started looking for work.
"I have hopes that I'll return to work there," she said through a Spanish interpreter. "I don't like it much but I have to work."
Some area residents expressed sympathy not only for the workers but for the company.
"They're hurting too," said Sherri Lapp, who works at a chiropractor's office. "You can't help a drop in the economy."
Mike McNulty, who said he spent two years trying to find a job, was less understanding of Swift's decision.
"I don't know why it is layoffs have to come this time of year," said McNulty, whose territory as a marketing representative for Sam's Club includes Greeley. "It just makes it worse."
Date: 12/22/04
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