Noel leaders stunned by charges Tyson Foods smuggled workers

NOEL, Mo. -- City leaders were stunned by news that Tyson Foods Inc. executives face charges of smuggling illegal workers into the country to work at plants, including one in this southwest Missouri town.

But many residents say it's about time the company -- which has lured hundreds of Hispanics to the town of about 1,500 people along the Arkansas border -- stands accused.

Six indicted

Six managers and executives at Springdale, Ark.,-based Tyson were indicted last week on federal charges they smuggled illegal aliens from Mexico and helped them get false documents to work in the United States, hoping the cheap labor would help the world's largest poultry company cut costs and meet production goals.

The company is not disputing the charges but denies that smuggling, which allegedly occurred at 15 Tyson plants including the Noel facility, was a companywide conspiracy.

Some here are skeptical.

"Tyson is a billion-dollar company and you're telling me it doesn't know what goes on within the corporation?" Carrie Edens, an office manager working for a local physician, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The chicken processing plant dominates Noel, employing about 1,260 workers who are paid $35 million each year. After other businesses are added, Tyson contributes about $59 million to the local and regional economy, the company said.

Because roughly half the plant's workers are Hispanic, from either the United States, Mexico or somewhere in Central America, the town's Hispanic population has boomed, according to census figures.

With the influx has come many illegal aliens.

Noel City Marshal William "Henry" McMahan said he wasn't surprised to learn that illegal aliens may work at Tyson, but he couldn't believe the government was accusing the company of doing it intentionally.

"I was shocked when I read about it in the newspaper," McMahan said.

But Ronnie Olive, owner of Noel Flea Market, said the feeling he has gotten from longtime residents is: "This should have happened long ago."

Tyson, which also has chicken plants in Dexter, Monett and Sedalia, said it has re-inspected its paperwork and that all employees now working at the Noel plant are properly documented.

The lure for workers south of the Rio Grande is clear. The plant pays at least $7 an hour, amounting to more than 10 times the average daily wage in Mexico, but less than it would require to get the average Noel resident to handle bird carcasses and pack chicken parts in cold rooms.

"I don't know who else would work in that plant," said Tony Catroppa, who has a hard time filling $8 an hour jobs at his Noel dance club. "If it wasn't for the Latinos, I don't think Tyson could operate."

Low pay

Others counter that Noel natives would work in the poultry plant if they were earning higher wages, something that they say won't occur as long as Tyson can rely on a cheap work force.

Even with the indictments, nobody in Noel seems to think that Hispanics will lose their growing place in the community and the local economy.

"They're learning to accept us," said Peta Ramirez, a mother of four who has lived in the town for the past seven years. "Some won't, but the majority does."

Local businessmen also depend on the Hispanic community, which make up about half of the business for Olive's flea market.

"They can't speak any English, and I can only speak four or five words of Spanish," Olive said. "But we work with them."

Still, other residents don't like the growing number Hispanics who are willing to work for low-wages.

Jerry Bone complained that Mexicans are now working the local timber market, competing with people like him who cut hickory and oak trees in the area. "It is getting so bad, I'm moving out of here," he said.

Nancy Zoerlin, owner of Arthur Murray's Motel, sees the poultry plant as a detriment to developing the town's tourism industry.

She depends on people canoeing the Elk River during the summer to keep her business going, and the odors from the nearby plant make canoeing less attractive.

"Chicken smells like money to them," Zoerlin said. "(Tyson) doesn't care what happens to the community."