PERRY, Iowa — Tyson Foods announced Monday it plans to permanently close its Perry pork plant, the city's largest employer, at the end of June.
The news came as a shock to employees. They told Local 5 the day started as normal and then "it all happened very suddenly."
The pork plant employs over 1,200 people, and the Perry Chamber of Commerce estimate about half of those employees are from or live near the Perry community.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires companies with 100 or more employees to give a 60-day notice of layoffs.
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Tyson Foods' pork plant had been a mainstay in the Perry community since 2001, and many employees had worked there over the duration of that time, including an employee Local 5 spoke with who wanted to remain anonymous.
The employee said the job helps them "pay, my husband, to pay for my house, the bills. Protect my son, help my parents, my mom."
"[In Perry] we're close if we need to go home. It's not dangerous. It snows. There's a playground. A job close by. Here I have my house papers and bills to help our family," she added. "We feel welcome here."
Jaymes Flores with Refugee and Immigrant Voices in Action (RIVA) told Local 5 News that, although nearly 1,300 people will be laid off, there's a bigger impact this closure will have on the community.
"Multiply that times four, because each person has a family, hypothetically. That's up to 5,000 people," Flores explained.
The cause of the closure has not yet been confirmed.