A lack of demand for turkey products has created a major change for West Liberty Foods, the community’s largest industry, announcing Monday the company will not only be putting an estimated 300 employees on furlough, but are asking turkey farmers who supply their production lines to take an 18-week break.
“Like a lot of companies in our industry, our business has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Dan Waters, vice president and general counsel for the national company that grew out of West Liberty.
“With restaurants closing and Americans sheltering in place, demand for many of our meat products dropped dramatically,” he said. “As a result, we have accumulated millions of excess pounds of turkey breast meat in cold storage, and we need to work through that inventory.”
Waters said the company’s plan to work through what he called a “glut” is to process live turkeys currently on our affiliated growers’ farms. “However, effective sometime around Friday, June 22, the growers will quit placing poults (baby turkeys) for 18 weeks.
He said that change in the production schedule means West Liberty Foods will not have live turkeys to process during a period running from “about November through February,” allowing the company to work through an inventory of excess meat.
During that time, team members who work in evisceration, cut-up and raw pack at the West Liberty facility would be placed on temporary furlough.
“We don’t know the exact number of workers who will be affected, but we estimate that number to be around 300,” Waters said, pointing out the remainder of the plant “will continue to fabricate, cook and slice products from the meat in our inventory.”
Furloughed employees will receive unemployment benefits, and West Liberty Foods will pay those employees an additional 25 percent to supplement those benefits. In addition, the company plans to pay the premiums for employees to remain on the company’s health insurance plan for the duration of the furlough.
Waters said depending on how fast the industry recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, the furlough may last for less than 18 weeks.