{"id":364193,"date":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/364193\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T19:39:08","slug":"what-happens-to-a-small-nebraska-town-when-3200-workers-lose-their-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/364193\/","title":{"rendered":"What happens to a small Nebraska town when 3,200 workers lose their jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) \u2014 On a frigid day after Mass at St. Ann\u2019s Catholic Church in rural Nebraska<\/a>, worshippers shuffled into the basement and sat on folding chairs, their faces barely masking the fear gripping their town.<\/p>\n

A pall hung over the room just as it hung over the holiday season in Lexington, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuddenly they tell us that there\u2019s no more work. Your world closes in on you,\u201d said Alejandra Gutierrez.<\/p>\n

She and the others work at Tyson Foods’ beef plant and are among the 3,200 people who will lose their jobs<\/a> when Lexington’s biggest employer closes the plant<\/a> next month after more than two decades of operation.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of families may be forced to pack up and leave the town of 11,000, heading east to Omaha or Iowa<\/a>, or south to the meatpacking towns of Kansas or beyond<\/a>, causing spinoff layoffs in Lexington’s restaurants, barbershops, grocers, convenience stores and taco trucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing 3,000 jobs in a city of 10,000 to 12,000 people is as big a closing event as we\u2019ve seen virtually for decades,\u201d said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Indiana’s Ball State University. It will be \u201cclose to the poster child for hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n

All told, the job losses are expected to reach 7,000, largely in Lexington and the surrounding counties, according to estimates from University of Nebraska, Lincoln, shared with The Associated Press. Tyson employees alone will lose an estimated $241 million in pay and benefits annually.<\/p>\n

Tyson says it’s closing the plant to \u201cright-size\u201d its beef business after a historically low cattle<\/a> herd in the U.S. and the company\u2019s expected loss of $600 million on beef production<\/a> next fiscal year.<\/p>\n

The plant’s closure threatens to unravel a Great Plains town where the American Dream was still attainable, where immigrants who didn’t speak English and never graduated high school bought homes, raised children in a safe community and sent them to college.<\/p>\n

Now, those symbols of economic progress \u2014 mortgages and car payments, property taxes and tuition costs \u2014 are bills that thousands of Tyson workers won’t have an income to pay.<\/p>\n

At St. Ann’s church, Gutierrez sat between her daughters and recalled being told of the plant closure just before Thanksgiving while she visited a college campus with her high school senior, Kimberly.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that moment, my daughter said she no longer wanted to study,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cBecause where would we get the money to pay for college?\u201d<\/p>\n

A tear slipped down Kimberly’s cheek as she looked at her mother and then down at her hands.<\/p>\n

\u2018Tyson was our motherland\u2019<\/p>\n

If you threw a dart at a map of the United States, Lexington \u2014 called \u201cLex\u201d by locals \u2014 would be just about bullseye.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to miss driving down Interstate 80, half hidden by barren hackberry trees, corn fields and pastures of Black Angus cattle, but a driver can spy the plant’s hulking industrial buildings pumping steam.<\/p>\n

The plant opened in 1990 and was bought by Tyson 11 years later, attracting thousands of workers and nearly doubling the town’s population within a decade.<\/p>\n

Many came from Los Angeles, then stricken by recession, including Lizeth Yanes, who initially hated what she called \u201ca little ghost town.”<\/p>\n

But soon Lexington flourished, with suburbs sprouting among bur oak and American elm trees. The downtown, a strip of cobblestone streets and brick buildings, has a Somali grocer that abuts a Hispanic bakery; locals attend over a dozen churches and several city recreation centers.<\/p>\n

To this day, the plant creates the town’s rhythm as workers roll on and off the daily A, B and C shifts and fill restaurants, school pickup lines and the one-screen movie theater showing \u201cPolar Express.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time for me to actually enjoy this little place,\u201d said Yanes. \u201cNow that I enjoy it, now I have to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

The atmosphere inside the Tyson plant, where workers process as many as 5,000 head of cattle a day, laboring on slaughter floors, cleaning crews or trimming cuts of meat, feels \u201clike a funeral,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyson was our motherland,” said plant worker Arab Adan. The Kenyan immigrant sat in his car with his two energetic sons, who asked him a question he has no answer to: \u201cWhich state are we gonna go, daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n

The only thing Adan is set on is that his kids finish the school year in Lexington, where school officials say nearly half of students have a parent working for Tyson.<\/p>\n

The school district, where at least 20 languages and dialects are spoken, has higher high school graduation and college attendance rates than the state and national average, and one of Nebraska’s biggest marching bands. Residents are proud of the diversity and the tightknit community, where young people return to raise families.<\/p>\n

During Mass at St. Ann’s, parishioners gave the cash in their pockets to a fund for families in financial need, despite knowing they’ll be out of work next month. Afterward, Francisco Antonio ran through his future employment options with a sad smile.<\/p>\n

After the plant closes on Jan. 20, the 52-year-old father of four said he’ll stay a few months in Lexington and look for work, though \u201cnow there’s no future.” He took off his glasses, paused, apologized and tried to explain his emotions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s home mostly, not the job,\u201d he said, replacing his glasses with an embarrassed smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need another opportunity, job, here in Lex,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise Lex is gonna disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Tyson owes this community\u2019<\/p>\n

The domino effect could go something like this: If 1,000 families skip town, said economist Hicks \u2014 who wouldn’t be surprised if it were double that \u2014 seats would be left empty in schools, leading to teacher layoffs; there would be far fewer customers in restaurants, shops and other businesses.<\/p>\n

Most of the customers at Los Jalapenos, a Mexican restaurant down the street from the plant, are Tyson workers. They fill booths after work and are greeted by owner Armando Martinez\u2019s mustachioed grin and bellow of \u201cHola, amigo!\u201d<\/p>\n

Martinez\u2019s grandson once told his grandfather that when he grows up he wants to work at Tyson. The child’s fifth-grade sister recently gathered with classmates to talk about the changes happening with their parents. Some were headed to California<\/a>, others to Kansas<\/a>. All were in tears.<\/p>\n

If he can’t keep up with bills, the restaurant will close, but \u201cthere\u2019s just nowhere we can go,” said Martinez, who undergoes dialysis for diabetes, has an amputated foot and prays for a miracle: that Tyson will change its mind.<\/p>\n

He knows it’s unlikely. Asked by The Associated Press for comment about plans for the site, Tyson said in a statement that it \u201cis currently assessing how we can repurpose the facility within our own production network.\u201d It did not provide details, or say whether it plans to offer support to the community through the plant closure.<\/p>\n

Many, including City Manager Joe Pepplitsch, are hoping Tyson puts the plant up for sale and a new company comes in bringing jobs. That isn’t a quick fix, requiring time, negotiations, renovations and no guarantee of comparable jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cTyson owes this community a debt. I think they have a responsibility here to help ease some of the impact,\u201d he said, noting Tyson doesn’t pay city taxes due to a deal negotiated decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s not easy, at our age, to go back and start over\u2019<\/p>\n

Near the plant, at the Dawson County Fairgrounds, Tyson workers recently filled a long hall as state agencies \u2014 responding with the urgency of a natural disaster \u2014 offered information on retraining, writing a resume, filing for unemployment and avoiding scammers when selling homes.<\/p>\n

Attendees’ faces were subdued, like listening to a doctor\u2019s prognosis. \u201cYour financial health is going to change,” they were told. \u201cDon\u2019t ignore the bank, they will not go away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the older workers don\u2019t speak English, haven\u2019t graduated high school and aren\u2019t computer savvy. The last application some filled out was decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know only working in meat for Tyson, we don\u2019t have any other experience,\u201d said Adan, the Kenyan immigrant.<\/p>\n

Back at St. Ann’s, workers echoed that concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey only want young people now,\u201d said Juventino Castro, who’s worked at Tyson for a quarter-century. \u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen in the time I have left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lupe Ceja said she’s saved a little money, but it won\u2019t last long. Luz Alvidrez has a cleaning gig that will sustain her for awhile. Others might return to Mexico for a time. Nobody has a clear plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt won\u2019t be easy,\u201d said Fernando Sanchez, a Tyson worker for 35 years who sat with his wife. \u201cWe started here from scratch and it\u2019s time to start from scratch again.”<\/p>\n

Tears rolled down his wife’s cheeks and he squeezed her hand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEXINGTON, Neb. (AP) \u2014 On a frigid day after Mass at St. Ann\u2019s Catholic Church in rural Nebraska,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[179304,28,101,7736,179305,2806,160944,117481],"class_list":{"0":"post-364193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alejandra-gutierrez","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-lexington","12":"tag-michael-hicks","13":"tag-nebraska","14":"tag-plant-closure","15":"tag-tyson-foods"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}