Class-action suit filed in Stoddard County against Tyson Foods

BLOOMFIELD — A class-action suit was filed Wednesday, June 5, against Tyson Foods regarding the company's closure of its facility in Dexter.

The lawsuit, filed in Stoddard County 35th Judicial Circuit Court, includes 45 plaintiffs who had previously produced chickens for slaughter/processing at the former Tyson Chicken Plant in Dexter. Tyson announced in August that the Dexter plant, along with another plant located in Noel, would shut down. The closure of the Dexter plant resulted in a loss of more than 600 jobs.

Following the shock of the announcement, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey and Sen. Josh Hawley reached out to company officials. Hawley would later announce that Tyson had committed to selling the Dexter plant to another meat producer in order to offset the economic fallout of hundreds of jobs being lost.

According to the motion filed Wednesday, that commitment wasn’t honored.

The lawsuit states that — among other issues — Tyson Foods made a business decision that puts them in violation of antitrust laws, as the corporation didn’t honor its alleged commitment and sold the Dexter factory to Cal-Maine, which is a chicken egg production company.

The motion states: “Attorney General Bailey echoed Senator Hawley in an October 3, 2023, letter to Tyson’s CEO, stating that it is ‘paramount that you do everything in your power to either keep the facilities open or sell to any interested party, including a competitor.’ The letter went on to explain that a refusal to sell the Dexter plant to a competitor would violate Missouri’s antitrust laws, citing a Missouri Supreme Court decision. See Empire Storage & Ice Co. v. Giboney, 357 Mo. 671, 676 (1948), aff’d 336 U.S. 490 (1949).”

The motion further alleges that growers were misled following the announced closure and were forced to sign contracts with Cal-Maine that would require them to abandon any claims against Tyson if they wanted to do business with Cal-Maine.

The motion filed with the court explains the chicken farms were designed for the production of live, grown chickens, and the operation of those farms was designed and tailored specifically to meet the needs of Tyson. Producing unfertilized table eggs is a different operation altogether.

The motion also alleges that Tyson Foods and Cal-Maine made reference to a “Memorandum of Understanding” regarding the sale, but that memorandum was not filed with the Stoddard County Recorder of Deeds. The motion alleges both corporations do not want the public or Missouri’s elected officials to know the terms of the agreement.

The suit was filed by The Oliver Firm in Dexter along with Clayton A. Jones, Attorney At Law, of Raymore; Boulware Law LLC, of Kansas City; and White, Graham, Buckley, and Carr LLC, of Independence.

The suit names Tyson Foods Inc., Tyson Chicken Inc., Cal-Maine Foods Inc., and Mark Avery, the former plant manager of Tyson’s Dexter location, as defendants.

Summonses have been issued for all of the named defendants.