What is the Tyson Foods controversy? ‘Boycott Tyson Foods,’ explained

In this era, no one is lucky enough to escape the conservatives’ love for misinformation — either they spread it or hang tight to the coattails of fake news conjured by others. But while you and I are mostly cursed to witness this endless chaos, some end up in the eye of the storm — Tyson Foods’ fresh troubles are a case in point.

The company has issued a statement intended to refute ongoing claims about a highly-unacceptable-to-conservatives update — and said information doesn’t even exist in the first place. But Tyson Foods’ statement has not done much to stem its currently-blowing-out-of-proportion viral conspiracy status, or the fact that the false news is costing Tyson Foods its investors, as well as making it a target of negative attention. Confused yet? Let’s break it down.

Why do conservatives want to boycott Tyson Foods?

It all started on March 15, 2024, with a post on X (formerly Twitter) making false claims that the multinational company plans to hire 52,000 undocumented immigrants in the U.S. after firing the workers in its facility in Perry, Iowa, and closing down the branch. Amassing millions of views, thousands of likes and retweets, and comments, the made-up announcement spread like wildfire, leading conservatives to jump on the news and join the #BoycottTyson train.

The American Conservative Values ETF, a conservative investment fund group, has already cut ties with the company over the controversy, and shared with Fox News that it has added a “refuse to buy” rating on Tyson Foods’ stocks because of its migrant hiring plans.

So, is there any truth to this glaring claim?

You know how the most successful lies are based on some portions of truth, which only serves to give the false statement its appearance of a solid foundation? That’s what has happened to Tyson Foods as well.

Here are the bare facts:

• Yes, the company is shutting down its pork-packing plant in Perry, Iowa, and will be laying off the 1.276 workers there sometime in mid-summer 2024 — news that was announced (via USA Today) three days before the fake post went up. The decision comes in the wake of the losses the pork industry has sustained in 2023, particularly in Iowa.
• The laid-off employees are being encouraged to apply at the other plants in Iowa as hiring across the state will continue.
• As for where the part about Tyson Foods hiring undocumented immigrants originated – the company announced back in 2022, as a part of the 45 major American companies in their partnership with Tent Partnership for Refugees, that it will aid in advancing “the economic and social integration of refugees across the country” by hiring 2,500 refugees over three years. 

This would not only allow migrants to access facilities like healthcare but also aid the company in filling its everyday jobs at its factories that no one was applying to. 

News outlets that originally went forth with the faulty narrative have retracted it after Tyson Foods came forward to specify that the company never said anything about hiring unauthorized migrants — stressing that its workers are “legally authorized” to work in America — as well as refuted the “completely false” claim about giving positions to 52,000 people.

“Tyson Foods is strongly opposed to illegal immigration, and we led the way in participating in the two major government programs to help employers combat unlawful employment, E-Verify and the Mutual Agreement between Government and Employers (IMAGE) program. 

Since being founded in 1935 in Arkansas, Tyson Foods has created jobs and employed millions of people in states all across America, the majority of whom are American citizens. Today, Tyson Foods employs 120,000 team members in the United States, all of whom are required to be legally authorized to work in this country. We have a history of strong hiring practices, and anybody who is legally able is welcome to apply to open job listings.”

But Bloomberg, which AP has tentatively listed as the possible catalyst of the news, refuses to take down its article in which Garrett Dolan, associate director of human resources at Tyson, “misspoke” and shared that the company is looking for 52,000 migrant workers.

So far, Tyson Foods’s statement has done little to stem the tide of the false claim. Surprising, isn’t it, that a made-up news item managed to harm the company, when its success sailed through numerous well-documented revelations of its animal abuse and cruelty — torture of pigs and piglets in a pig farm in Oklahoma connected to the company, Tyson workers were recorded being exceptionally cruel to chickens at four different processing plants, and many more real examples that are better suited for those dead-set on going against the organization.