Price fixing, illegal workers: US pork processors face thorny issues
US pork processing firms have recently had to cope with various different issues creating some negative attention. Those include historic issues regarding price fixing, illegal under-age labour as well as working safety issues.
The largest pork price-fixing legal settlement in US history is currently coming to a close. Tyson Foods has just been ordered to pay US$ 85 million in a consumer class action suit where Tyson and other processors were found to be guilty of conspiring together to limit supply and inflate pork prices.
Tyson has more payments to make in this case, and is the last company to settle. In 2022, Smithfield Foods paid out a settlement amount of US$ 75 million. JBS, Hormel Foods and other companies have also settled in the recent past.
Reuters news service also reported that “dozens of supermarket chains including Kroger, restaurant chains including McDonald’s, food producers and food distributors have also sued [processors] over pork prices.” Similar lawsuits alleging price-fixing of beef, chicken and turkey are also pending in several federal courts.
Illegal child labour in meat processing plants
Secondly, illegal workers have been an issue in US for many years in meat processing plants. It is generally accepted that meat companies “employ” these workers because the wages for this dangerous and exhausting labour is not high enough to attract legal American workers.
Historically, successive federal administrations have largely ignored this law-breaking to maximise profits. However, in September 2025, the US Department of Labor announced that going back at least to 2019 and for years after that, illegal children were found working night shifts at a Seaboard Triumph Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, IA.
Arrest and deportation of small numbers of the millions of people illegally living in the US continue across many sectors including agriculture, but following the historic pattern, meat processing plants are not currently being targeted.
Worker safety concerns
Another long-standing US pork processing issue is safety worries over processing line speeds.
A Wisconsin-based media outlet reported that since a legislative change in the spring, now “many swine and poultry plants across the US are increasing rates of processing and inspecting animals,” part of “what government officials call a ‘modernised’ inspection system, which also shifts carcass sorting duties from federal inspectors to company employees.”
There are concerns that that will increase worker safety risks and could also cause animal welfare issues. It was in March that the US Department of Agriculture announced changes to the US meat inspection system, “to reduce burdens on the US pork and poultry industries.”
In addition, the federal “Food Safety and Inspection Service will no longer require plants to submit redundant worker safety data, as extensive research has confirmed no direct link between processing speeds and workplace injuries.”
