JBS USA announced plans to close two processing facilities, adding to a series of disruptions that have raised questions about the future of capacity and labor relations across the U.S. meatpacking sector.
The company said it will permanently close its beef production facility in Souderton, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and a value-added processing plant in Memphis, Tennessee.
JBS operates a large beef plant in Grand Island that remains in operation.
The announcement follows several high-profile developments involving major meat processors over the past year.
Last fall, Tyson Foods closed its beef processing plant in Lexington, Nebraska, putting roughly 3,200 people out of work. The closure of the town’s largest employer eliminated roughly 30% of the city’s workforce and removed nearly 5% of the total daily U.S. beef slaughter capacity.
More recently, Cargill locked out approximately 1,700 workers at its Fort Morgan, Colorado, beef processing facility after months of contract negotiations with the worker’s union failed to produce a ratified labor agreement.
The Fort Morgan plant represents nearly 5% of total U.S. beef production and is one of the country’s largest beef-processing facilities.
The developments come amid heightened labor tensions across the industry. Earlier this year, nearly 4,000 workers at a JBS beef plant in Greeley, Colorado, conducted what was widely reported as the largest U.S. meatpacking strike in six decades before ultimately ratifying a new labor agreement.
Together, JBS, Tyson Foods, Cargill and National Beef account for roughly 80% to 85% of U.S. beef processing capacity.