Illinois presses Tyson for a buyer after 2,500 workers lost their jobs overnight

On August 13, 2026, supervisors at Tyson Foods’ beef processing plant in Joslin, Illinois told workers arriving for their shift that the facility would close for good, according to Labor Notes. About 2,500 employees lost their jobs with no advance warning, the outlet reported.

Tyson said the closure, alongside plants in Utah and Washington state, was driven by “soaring input costs and a historic cattle shortage,” Governor J.B. Pritzker said, according to a report from KWQC, which also quoted the company telling him it wants to sell the Joslin plant “as soon as possible” if a buyer can be found.

Pritzker said he called both the local union leader and Tyson’s chief executive directly. “What can we do to get that plant back open again?” he said he asked, per the same report. He added that Illinois “is working like hell to find” a buyer.

Laid-off workers receive one to four weeks of severance based on seniority plus two months of partial pay at 36 hours a week, Labor Notes reported. United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546, which represented the plant, said it had not received advance notice of the closure.

Workers are asking for six months of full pay and benefits instead, and have called on Pritzker to use eminent domain to bring the plant under state ownership, Labor Notes reported. Supporters organized a caravan from the Quad Cities to the state capitol in Springfield on September 3 to press the demand, the outlet reported.

Joslin has 56 residents, Labor Notes reported, and the plant was the Quad Cities region’s ninth-largest employer. Many of its workers were immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Burma. Ahoro Asselissime, an 11-year employee, told Labor Notes his weekly income fell from about $900 to $500 after the closure. Nana Ouro-Agoro, founder of the nonprofit Akwaaba, said workers were treated “worse than the cattle.” About one in four of Akwaaba’s clients is now unemployed, Labor Notes reported.

Hundreds of laid-off workers attended a job fair at Vibrant Arena at the Mark in Moline on September 2, where more than 100 employers and 25 nonprofits offered health insurance guidance, unemployment benefits help and English-language classes, according to Quad Cities NPR. Wayne and Cheryl Davis, married and both 37-year employees of the plant, were among those who attended, the station reported. “2,500 jobs is a lot to absorb for a community,” Teresa Cherry, executive director of the American Job Center, told the station. “There are a lot of people who are scared right now, and that’s our job… is to help them find a way to have a job that they like.”

The four largest meatpackers, including Tyson, control more than 80 percent of the U.S. beef processing market, Labor Notes reported. Tyson’s chief executive was paid nearly $35 million last year, 781 times the median worker’s pay, the outlet reported. Tyson’s beef segment posted an adjusted operating loss of $138 million in the third quarter, even as the company’s overall adjusted operating income rose 8 percent, to $547 million, according to the same report and Tyson’s own third-quarter earnings release.

The closure could cost the Quad Cities economy $116 million a year in lost wages, KWQC reported, citing figures presented alongside the governor’s remarks.