Months After School Shooting Iowa Town to Lose Over 1200 Jobs

It has not been a good start to 2024 for the small town of Perry, Iowa. The city continues to deal with a January school shooting that left three people dead, and six injured. Now, the city's largest employer is about to shut down.

The Des Moines Register reports that Tyson Foods has decided to shut down the plant located in Perry, Iowa. The plant is the city's largest employer and the move will leave 1,276 workers without a job. The move was confirmed by a company email on Monday.

Tyson is encouraging employees at the Perry Plant to apply for other positions within the company, according to the Register. Tyson still employs over 9,000 people in Iowa and has pork facilities in Waterloo, Storm Lake, and Columbus Junction.

Perry Mayor Dirk Cavanaugh told the Register that it is unlikely any of the Perry plant workers would stay in the area if they moved to another plant. While not all Tyson workers live in Perry, they still make up a large part of the economic base of the community.

Cavanaugh stated the company officials told him that the plant closure would likely come in late June, according to the Register. State and local leaders will begin to look for another employer who might be able to use the space. Rumors about the plant closing had been spreading among workers for weeks, but no official word came until yesterday.