Perry prepares for Tyson plant closure and what comes next

Jody Wells sits under a picnic shelter wearing a polo with “United Food and Commercial Workers International” stitched on the front. She's worked at the Tyson plant for nearly three decades, first on the floor operating a band saw and then as a secretary and treasurer for the union.

On March 11, Wells said she was called into the Tyson cafeteria.

“Everybody walked in there happy, joking around, laughing, and Tyson handed us a piece of paper that said they were closing,” said Wells.

Arkansas-based Tyson Foods employs nearly 1,300 people at its facility in Perry. Hundreds more work there as contracted cleaning crews and cafeteria workers, according to city officials.

For many, the decision to close — happening June 28 — was completely unexpected. Tyson had poured millions of dollars into the facility in recent years, including upgrading their meat freezers.

While Wells is from Iowa, she said a lot of people moved here for the promise of good pay and job security. Several had just bought houses.

“It was a sad day, and then the next morning, I woke up and I thought, “Was that a dream? But it wasn’t a bad dream,” said Wells.

Tyson says it’s closing the single-shift plant in Perry to make operations more efficient, and agricultural economists point to tough times for pork packers in the U.S. as a factor in that decision.

Wells said some workers may go to one of Tyson’s other packing plants in Iowa. But a slew of Tyson closures in other states makes her wary.

“If you’ve seen it happen this many times, what’s going to make you want to go to another Tyson plant — without the fear of going through this again or putting your family and your kids through this again," said Wells.

It's been a tough year for Perry. The plant closure decision came on top of a school shooting in January that left three dead and injured six others. But Wells says community support is strong in the town.

Perry Next

Shortly after the news broke about Tyson, a group coalesced to figure out next steps, representing city, county and state officials as well as local businesses and community leaders.

Chris Cohea is Perry’s marketing and engagement coordinator.

“We just knew we needed to act immediately, and we needed to have a strong coalition behind that movement. It couldn’t just be splintered groups doing their own thing. It needed to be a concerted effort,” said Cohea.

They formed a coalition called Perry Next .

Cohea said one of the main goals has been to share information with Tyson employees and connect them to resources, like housing and food assistance, job fairs, career counselors and training.

That extends to support coming from the local DMACC campus.

Eddie Diaz is the site director of DMACC at Perry VanKirk Career Academy. He says many of the students are high schoolers. But he’s adding more sections and programs for Tyson employees to pivot into new careers.

“Over here, another lab. This one’s a little bit in transition, but our primary goal for this one is industrial maintenance,” said Diaz, pointing out moveable stations for electrical work, hydraulics and pneumatics. “Perry has a large manufacturing base, and one of the highest needs is people that know how to fix machines.”

The adjacent lab is for welding, another in-demand field. Other rooms are used for English language learning, and upstairs hospital beds are filled with patient simulators for the certified nursing assistant program.

“As you can see, it’s kind of set up like a long-term care facility,” said Diaz.

DMACC also hosts a Workforce Resource Center three days a week. Diaz said the goal is to get people to walk through the door and see what opportunities exist, including financial support for job training.

“There are going to be a lot of people struggling to find that next step, but the resources are there, if we can get it to them to make that easier,” said Diaz.

He added that partners in the region are key.

Thirteen languages are spoken at the Tyson plant, and roughly 40% of Tyson employees commute to Perry, according to city officials. Most come from Polk County and the Des Moines metro.

Chad Pierce, with Iowa Workforce Development, spoke on a Perry Next panel discussion in May. He said staff had set up a transition center at Tyson to answer questions. They also conducted worker information meetings with the help of translators.

Since April, Iowa Workforce Development has organized two job fairs with support from Iowa Works, DMACC and the Perry Chamber of Commerce. Pierce said the first job fair focused on local employment opportunities for people wanting to stay in Perry.

“We were also able to collect a lot of information about some services individuals needed moving forward,” said Pierce.

Survey data revealed a strong interest in getting a commercial driver’s license, which prompted Diaz to add a CDL prep course to the DMACC at Perry VanKirk Career Academy.

The long game

Community leaders say there will be ripple effects from the plant closure beyond Tyson employees.

Sven Peterson, Perry’s city administrator, said around 300 students in the Perry Community School District have a household tie to a Tyson employee.

“That's something that we're going to be watching very closely with the school district and just really keep an eye on that based on state supplemental aid that’s tied to those enrollment numbers,” said Peterson.

Jocelyn Monzon, a care coordinator for Dallas County Hospital, said her team is ramping up efforts to bridge the gap between health care and social services for patients.

“We are already seeing isolation — identified by our patients — food insecurities, housing insecurities," said Monzon.

Cohea says some people are optimistic about another company buying the Tyson plant. But it could take a year or more for that to happen. In the meantime, he said Perry Next will strive to meet immediate and long-term needs.

“We are set up to handle this better than in previous years. The City of Perry, unfortunately, has had a history of rugs being pulled out," said Cohea.

He says Perry reinvented itself when the railroad left and as the packing plant changed ownership multiple times in the past. With Tyson closing this week, the town will try to do it again.