Tyson Foods has been hit with a series of civil rights complaints accusing the meatpacking company of discriminating against American workers and favoring immigrants.
America First Legal (AFL), a conservative group, has filed various civil rights complaints against the $54 billion company on Wednesday, saying it offered benefits to migrants it denied to U.S. citizens.
Tyson faced a boycott in March from conservatives angry that the company laid off 1,300 workers at a pork plant in Iowa while hiring dozens of newcomers in New York City.
The company says it does not favor migrant labor over Americans.
Reed Rubinstein, an AFL lawyer, accused Tyson executives of acting like “citizens of the world who happen to live and work in the US.”
Tyson has announced plans to double its migrant workforce to 84,000 this year, including positions at this Springdale, Arkansas plant
Tyson Foods recruiters offered ‘job-and-lawyer’ packages to new migrants arriving in New York
“Our citizens and consumers deserve companies that put America and its people first,” Rubinstein said.
His group filed a federal civil rights complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and also asked the Department of Justice and the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to investigate the company.
AFL, which is led by former Trump administration officials, also wrote to Tyson’s CEO Donnie King and his board.
The complaints concern approximately 42,000 migrants among Tyson’s 120,000 employees.
They point to the closure of a plant in Perry, Iowa, announced in March.
Meanwhile, company boss Garrett Dolan said Tyson wanted to double the number of immigrant workers to 84,000 by 2024, the papers reported.
The letters point to Tyson’s partnership with the Tent Foundation and a 2022 pledge to accept 2,500 refugees in the U.S. over three years.
The company also spends $1.5 million each year helping migrants pay lawyers to get U.S. papers and work permits, AFL says.
King, Tyson’s boss, said in an annual report that the company has spent $2.4 million on legal aid for migrants, according to the complaint.
The closure of Tyson’s pork plant in Perry, Iowa, and the loss of 1,300 employees led to a boycott of the company in March.
Conservatives on social media called for a boycott of Tyson and its various food brands
The company “does not offer similar benefits to U.S. citizens,” AFL added.
The documents also point to Tyson’s record of hiring migrant minors in dangerous overnight cleaning services, as well as its diversity hiring goals.
Reed Rubinstein, an AFL attorney
The various policies amount to discrimination against American workers, and Tyson should be investigated, the complaint said.
The company, headquartered in Springdale, Arkansas, did not respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment.
During the boycott in March, Tyson said it was not cutting American jobs to hire migrants and was only recruiting newcomers with work permits.
“Any insinuation that we would cut American jobs to hire guest workers is completely false,” Tyson said in a statement.
Industry insiders told DailyMail.com that meatpacking companies often target migrants because Americans aren’t interested in the low wages and unpleasant conditions.
Many of those who lost their jobs in Perry were immigrants themselves.
Meatpacking plants are undesirable places to work, and Tyson says there are many positions to fill with a low unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.
Tyson’s $13 million-a-year CEO, Donnie King, has led the company since 2021
Tyson Foods brands include Tyson, Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright and Aidells
But conservatives on social media accused the company of being unpatriotic.
The EEOC, which enforces laws against workplace discrimination, is not required to act on complaints that have increased in recent years.
AFL has filed complaints with the EEOC about workplace diversity programs at the NFL, Major League Baseball and dozens of companies, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, Morgan Stanley, Activision Blizzard and Kellogg.
The complaints against Tyson play on fears that Democrats, globalists and big corporations are encouraging migrants to flock to the US as part of a “great replacement” of American workers and voters.
They raise tough questions for Tyson’s $13 million-a-year CEO King, who has led the company since 2021 and during that time has bankrolled the campaign coffers of President Joe Biden, Nikki Haley and others, according to Open Secrets.
The company earned $52,881 million in sales last year through its Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Wright, Aidells and other brands.