Tyson Foods to terminate 262 employees remaining at South Dakota office

Dominik Dausch, Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Updated ·2 min read
1
On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, Tyson Foods announced that the company is closing two facilities that employ more than 1,600 people in an effort to streamline its U.S. poultry business.
On Tuesday, March 14, 2023, Tyson Foods announced that the company is closing two facilities that employ more than 1,600 people in an effort to streamline its U.S. poultry business.

Come July, 262 Tyson Foods employees in Dakota Dunes, including some executive staff, won't be working for the food giant.

That's according to a notice from Tyson's Jamison Smith, vice president of human resources, that was filed on May 26 under the South Dakota Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act website.

The news comes after Tyson announced plans in October 2022 to move corporate employees from the company's Chicago, Illinois and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota offices to their world headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas.

More: Tyson Foods to shut down South Dakota, Illinois offices in 2023

The notice indicates many of the employees refused to move to the new headquarters. Tyson will terminate most of their team members remaining in South Dakota by July 31.

Tyson Foods offered relocation assistance to support their employees' relocation to northwest Arkansas, which is about 500 miles south of Dakota Dunes. The company is offering severance benefits for affected employees choosing not to make the move based on tenure and job grade.

None of the employees being let go are part of a collective bargaining agreement, the notice states, and will not be eligible for bumping rights to alternative positions.

An addendum document shows some executive positions at the Dakota Dunes corporate office listed in the termination notice. This includes several vice president roles and one senior vice president role.

The majority of the people being let go are white-collar workers.

Tyson Foods previously told the Argus Leader about 1,000 employees between the Chicago and Dakota Dunes offices would be impacted by the relocation. According to the Sioux City Journal, Dakota Dunes employees made up about half of those impacted.

The company positioned the move as a means to "foster closer collaboration, enhance team member agility and enable faster decision making" in a Oct. 5, 2022 release.

“Tyson Foods will expand its world headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas to bring together all of its domestic corporate team members from Chicago and Downers Grove, Ill. and Dakota Dunes, South Dakota into one location," according to the October press release. "The multi-year project, the details of which will be rolled out over the next several months, will include a number of features to enable connectivity, collaboration, and innovation through sustainable and dynamic spaces including state-of-the-art technology.”

Dominik Dausch is the agriculture and environment reporter for the Argus Leader and editor of Farm Forum. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook @DomDNP and send news tips to ddausch@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Tyson Foods to terminate 262 employees remaining at SD office