Two of the nation's largest meatpackers have agreed to pay a combined $127.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit over allegations that they participated in a conspiracy to lower meat industry wages.
JBS and Tyson Foods have agreed to pay a class of meat industry employees $55 million and $72.25 million, respectively, to settle a lawsuit initially brought by two former plant workers. Both companies also agreed to share additional data and documents with the class, allow some current employees to be deposed, and help plaintiffs access phone records.
Neither company admitted to conspiring with the other defendants to keep wages low.
Approval of the settlement now rests with Judge Philip Brimmer of the U.S. District Court in Colorado, who is overseeing the case. The plaintiffs, in their request for preliminary judgment, asked the judge to "defer formal notice" of the agreements to a later date, since they do not yet have the contact information for all of the meat industry workers eligible for participation in the lawsuit.
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The plaintiffs, former meat industry workers Ron Brown and Minka Garmon, filed the lawsuit on Nov. 11, 2022. In it, they accused 11 red meat processors and their subsidiaries of using "secret compensation surveys" to compare wage, salary and benefits information for workers, as well as "private, hours-long, 'roundtable' discussions" where executives would discuss the survey results. They also alleged Hormel Foods, JBS, Seaboard Foods, Smithfield Foods, Triumph Foods and Tyson Foods used data provider Agri Stats to share information about pork processing workers, and that some of the companies involved in the lawsuit promised through "no poach" agreements to not recruit employees of other meat plants.
Brown previously worked at a Smithfield Farms plant in Iowa, while Garbon was employed at a National Beef plant in Georgia.
Perdue Farms and Seaboard Foods agreed about a year ago to settle for $1.25 million and $10 million, respectively. With the JBS and Tyson Foods agreements, the total amount of money committed through settlements by companies in the lawsuit stands at $138.5 million, according to court documents.
"The proposed settlements with JBS and Tyson represent a significant increase in the valuation of the case and in the financial compensation and cooperation benefits for the Settlement Classes," the plaintiffs' motion for preliminary approval of the settlements says.
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