One-thousand-three-hundred people in Perry, Iowa, are out of work after the town’s biggest employer, Tyson Foods, shut down its pork-processing plant. That’s a whole 25 percent of the small town’s working-age population, and there are few other opportunities locally.
Apparently Tyson shut down the plant because the facility was outdated and the cost of modernizing it would have been prohibitive. A spokeswoman for the Greater Dallas County Development Alliance said town residents had lived in hope that something could be done. Rachel Wacker said people were disappointed that no other businesses bought the plant the way the local population hoped.
When big layoffs happen, they don’t just affect the individual staff who lose their jobs. That can tank an entire family’s income. In the case of Perry Iowa, well more than half the town’s population has lost income and stability because of the closure (60 percent).
Less than ten percent of the former workforce—about 200 employees—were able to move with their families to other parts of Iowa or other states with Tyson plants.
Town resident Joe Swanson said he moved to get ahead of the closure as soon as Tyson announced it in March. He said he could not go without health insurance, so he took a new job with the right benefits as soon as it became available, about a month and a half before the pork plant shut down.
“I know how hard this is going to be for a lot of people,” said Swanson, who worked for Tyson for 14 years.
It is closures like this that have turned once-thriving Midwestern towns and cities into something resembling the rust belt. Youngstown, Ohio, is one of the best examples. It used to boast a population of 140,000, many of whom worked in its famous steel mills. But when that American industry collapsed in the 1970s, Youngstown declined and never came back, losing half its population.
In 2009, people in Farmerville, Louisiana felt as the Iowans must feel now when a poultry processing plant shut down, leaving an entire third of the town out of work.
People are also trying to switch industries. Nacho Calderon lives in Perry, and he wants to become certified to drive trucks necessary to work for a garbage-hauling or concrete company. Luckily, the local community college is offering free classes to laid off workers who want to earn their commercial driver’s license, a requirement to operate heavy trucks of that size.
The Tyson plant in Perry had operated for 61 years.
