Koch Foods and Jennie-O Turkey Store have reached agreements in principle to settle a lawsuit that accuses the company of conspiring with other poultry companies to suppress wages and benefits for employees.
A court document, filed on August 20 in the United States District Court, District of Maryland, said an agreement, had been reached between Koch Foods and a class of workers who allege the collusion. The agreement is subject to the drafting of a long-form settlement agreement deemed acceptable to the two parties and the court. A similar filing regarding the proposed Jennie-O Turkey Store settlement was made in the same court on the following day.
Terms of the agreements were not disclosed.
An offer to settle does not mean an admission of guilt.
Other companies to have reportedly settled in a suit alleging a wage-suppression conspiracy include Tyson Foods, Amick Farms, Pilgrim’s Pride, Simmons Foods, George’s, Peco Foods, Cargill, Sanderson Farms, Wayne Farms, Perdue Farms, Case Farms and Mountaire Farms. Wayne Farms and Sanderson Farms are now one combined company, Wayne-Sanderson Farms.
Koch Foods, according to information from the WATTPoultry.com Top Poultry Companies Database, is the sixth largest poultry company in the United States. In 2023, the company processed 62.1 million pounds of ready-to-cook chicken on a weekly basis. Koch Foods is headquartered in Park Ridge, Illinois, and operates eight slaughter plants, four further processing plants, seven hatcheries and six feed mills.
Jennie-O Turkey Store, a subsidiary of Hormel Foods, is the largest turkey producer in the United States. In 2023, the company slaughtered 1.1 billion pounds of live turkeys.
