West Liberty Foods still saw the need to suspend poult placements and furlough some of its turkey processing workers to mitigate challenges related to COVID-19, but those temporary changes will not endure as long as previously expected.
As people stayed at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for many of its turkey products had dramatically dropped. As a result, the company accumulated millions of excess pounds of turkey breast meat in cold storage.
In order to work though that surplus inventory, West Liberty Foods in May announced plans to process the live turkeys on its growers’ farms, but then ask them to suspend the placement of poults for an 18-week period. In doing so, West Liberty would not process live turkeys during an estimated period from November through February 2021, but would rather work through the turkey meat inventory.
However, the pause in poult placements did not need to last as long as previously thought, said Dan Waters, vice president and general counsel for West Liberty Foods.
“Fortunately, our sales have rebounded from the lows of the COVID-19 pandemic downturn and orders from customers have exceeded projections. Our board shortened the poult placement suspension to six weeks rather than 18,” Waters explained.
Because the period of suspended poult placements was shortened from the original plan, so will be the length of the employee furloughs, Waters said.
According to the May plan, about 300 West Liberty Foods team members who work in evisceration, cut-up and raw pack at the company’s facility in West Liberty, Iowa, would have been furloughed for about 18 weeks, while the remainder of the plant’s workers would continue to fabricate, cook and slice products from the meat in inventory. However, the number of employees to be furloughed ended up being about 50 fewer than originally thought, and the period of time for the furloughs has been shortened to five weeks. Waters said the current plan is for the employees to be furloughed from January 4 through February 8.
Some team members will have the option to transfer into open positions elsewhere in the plant rather than be furloughed, Waters said, based on availability and seniority. Furloughed employees will be eligible to receive unemployment benefits, and West Liberty Foods will pay an additional amount to supplement those benefits. In addition, the company will pay the premiums for these team members and their families to remain on West Liberty Foods’ health insurance plan for the duration of the furlough.
Improvements being made to facility
Waters added that during the furlough period, the company plans to make several improvements to the first processing portion of its plant in West Liberty, which Waters said will ensure that we remain able to harvest turkeys in West Liberty for many years to come.
Those improvements include:
- Replacing a drop ceiling
- Refurbishing the ride-a-track
- Wall repairs
- Replacement of lower ceiling steel
- Bar joist repairs
- Beam and column repair
- Replacment ammonia piping
- Painting of beams
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