(Wilkesboro, N.C.) — Tyson is shifting an unspecified amount of work from a North Carolina factory to their new facility in Danville.
Last week Tyson begin laying off 500 workers at a fresh chicken facility in Wilkesboro, N.C.. That’s about a fifth of the plant’s workforce.
“Due to increasing demand, we are shifting production in our Wilkesboro, NC facility to support our Tyson fully cooked products,” a Tyson Foods spokesperson said. “As a result of these process changes, fewer positions will be required in the facility. Our priority is to help team members impacted by this change, and we are working with them to offer other opportunities at Tyson Foods.”
A company spokesman says Tyson is shifting production to support their fully cooked products. They report around 400 positions could be transferred to newer factories in Danville or Humboldt, Tennessee.
Tyson last year shuttered six plants, including one in Glen Allen, Virginia, and eliminated 4,460 jobs.
Tyson execs say their newer plants, like the one in Danville, run more efficiently and require less labor because of automation.
In Danville, 400 team members work at Tyson’s 425,000 square foot facility — making four million pounds of fully-cooked Tyson-brand chicken products each week. There’s no word on how many jobs they’ll gain from the production cuts in Wilkesboro.