Ibp

Re the deplorable and dangerous labor conditions at slaughterhouses (July 9): IBP cuts the work hours to seven hours and 56 minutes in order to avoid giving workers a decent break and lunch hour? Desperate employees often "soil themselves," unable to take a bathroom break. A third of their employees injure themselves on the job every year. An IBP spokesperson has the gall to claim that employee injury and illness prevention is important to IBP. Where, oh where, are the labor lawyers when you need them?

Tyson Foods Inc. said it would fire as many as 600 workers at its Hope, Ark., chicken-processing plant to reduce costs. The cuts will affect mainly unionized workers who remove bones from chicken carcasses, Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said. The plant employs about 1,650 people and processes about 1.3 million birds a week. "We're outsourcing some of the operations to other facilities," Nicholson said. "It's economically feasible to do so."

On May 2 The Times published a letter by David T. Barry, a Los Angeles official of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, "Armand Hammer's Meat Plant in Nebraska," in which he provided an erroneous and misleading picture of labor relations within Occidental Petroleum Corp. Occidental is in many businesses: oil exploration and production; chemicals; coal mining; natural gas transmission; and meat processing. We deal with many different labor organizations across the United States.

A federal judge has awarded more than $3 million to workers at an IBP Inc. meat processing plant who were not paid for time spent putting on protective equipment before shifts or cleaning off blood, animal fat and bits of carcasses afterward, their attorneys said. U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley ordered IBP, now a unit of the largest U.S. meat group, Tyson Foods Inc., to compensate 815 current and former employees of the Pasco, Wash., plant.

Ronald Asquith's reply (Letters, May 9) about Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s meatpacking subsidiary, IBP, is wrong! He may be the vice president of employee relations in Los Angeles, but I worked at the Dakota City, Neb., plant for almost two years. I have since moved away because of the lockout by management in December, 1986. Asquith stated that ". . . a substantial number of strikers having returned to work, having accepted IBP's wage package . . ." He did not mention that the reason they returned to work.

A Teamsters local representing more than 1,200 meatpacking workers in eastern Washington state was placed under trusteeship Monday, less than a week after workers at a plant owned by IBP Inc. ended a bitter monthlong strike by narrowly approving a new contract.

Tyson Foods Inc. said it would fire as many as 600 workers at its Hope, Ark., chicken-processing plant to reduce costs. The cuts will affect mainly unionized workers who remove bones from chicken carcasses, Tyson spokesman Ed Nicholson said. The plant employs about 1,650 people and processes about 1.3 million birds a week. "We're outsourcing some of the operations to other facilities," Nicholson said. "It's economically feasible to do so."

Pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. is expected to improve its offer for IBP Inc., as a deadline looms in its battle with Tyson Inc. for control of the beef-processing company, analysts said. Tyson, the largest U.S. poultry producer, raised its bid for IBP late Thursday by $1 to $27 a share in cash and stock, valuing Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based IBP at $2.9 billion. Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield has offered $25 a share in stock and has been expected to raise the bid.

Giant meat processor IBP Inc., seeking to tap into the growing market for foods prepared away from home, said it agreed to acquire Foodbrands America Inc., a food service supplier, for $640 million. IBP, based in Dakota City, Neb., said it offered to pay $23.40 a share for a total of $292 million in cash and to assume about $348 million in Foodbrands' debt. IBP is the nation's largest meatpacker.

IBP Inc., which last month agreed to a management-led buyout, said it will consider a competing $4.1-billion bid from Smithfield Foods Inc. that would create the nation's largest beef and pork producer. IBP, the largest U.S. beef supplier, said in a letter to Smithfield Chief Executive Joseph W. Luter III that it was "prepared to enter into discussions" if the Smithfield, Va.-based pork producer increased its offer of $25 a share in stock.

U.S. meat giant Tyson Foods Inc. said fiscal fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled, boosted by the acquisition of beef and pork processor IBP Inc. and higher chicken prices. Tyson, which closed a deal to acquire IBP at the end of the quarter, reported earnings of $47.5 million, or 22 cents a diluted share, for the period ended Sept. 29 including IBP, compared with $18 million, or 8 cents a share, a year ago. Tyson earned 20 cents a share excluding the IBP purchase.

The nation's largest beef processor, IBP Inc., said Thursday that it is recalling half a million pounds of hamburger meat that may be contaminated with a deadly strain of E. coli bacteria. The move, which affects 36 states including California, is the second ground beef recall by a major U.S. processor in less than a week. No illnesses have been reported or linked to the meat, much of which was sold in 5- and 10-pound packs to restaurants and supermarkets to repackage and sell to consumers.

Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. said this weekend it had completed its tender offer for beef processor IBP Inc., bringing closer to fruition an exhaustive takeover bid that included temporary cancellation of the deal and shareholder lawsuits. Tyson said Saturday that about 106.99 million shares, or 99.1%, of IBP common stock had been tendered by midnight Friday, when the tender offer expired. Tyson said it would purchase slightly more than half of IBP's stock, or nearly 53.

Poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. confirmed that it reached a new deal to acquire IBP Inc. for about $2.7 billion in cash and stock, nearly 16% less than its previous bid, creating the nation's largest meat company. Tyson said it will commence a tender offer for half of IBP's outstanding shares for $30 each no later than July 5, to be completed by Sept. 1. Each of the remaining IBP shares will be exchanged for 2.381 Tyson shares, based on Tyson's current stock price.

Tyson Foods Inc. said Monday that it would heed a judge's order and resume plans to acquire IBP Inc. in a $3.2-billion deal that would combine the nation's largest chicken and beef producers. Tyson opted against fighting a Delaware judge who ruled Friday that the Springdale, Ark.-based poultry company improperly tried to back out of the deal, under which Tyson also would assume $1.5 billion in IBP debt.

A Delaware Chancery Court judge ruled that Tyson Foods Inc., the world's top poultry producer, cannot back out of its $4.7-billion acquisition of meat packer IBP Inc. Vice Chancellor Leo E. Strine said he was not persuaded by Tyson's claims that it was kept in the dark about financial problems at an IBP subsidiary. He said Tyson "improperly terminated" its agreement with IBP and must go through with the deal. An appeal by Tyson is expected. Springdale, Ark.

The Labor Department is suing IBP Inc., accusing the meat packing company of not paying more than 20,000 employees for work performed before and after their regular shifts in 12 plants since 1994. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., seeks to recover back wages totaling about $8 million under the Fair Labor Standards Act. In October, an appeals court held that Dakota City, Neb.-based IBP had to pay $4.5 million in back wages and more than $2.

Tyson Foods Inc. said Monday that it would heed a judge's order and resume plans to acquire IBP Inc. in a $3.2-billion deal that would combine the nation's largest chicken and beef producers. Tyson opted against fighting a Delaware judge who ruled Friday that the Springdale, Ark.-based poultry company improperly tried to back out of the deal, under which Tyson also would assume $1.5 billion in IBP debt.

A judge in Delaware ruled that meatpacker IBP Inc.'s lawsuit against poultry giant Tyson Foods Inc. can go forward. In a 28-page ruling, Judge Leo E. Strine denied Tyson's motion to dismiss the case and its argument that issues IBP presented could be handled in a separate lawsuit by Tyson against IBP in Washington County, Ark. Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based IBP filed its lawsuit March 30 to force Springdale, Ark.-based Tyson to complete its planned $3.

Meat packing firm IBP Inc. filed a lawsuit seeking to force poultry giant Tyson Foods to honor the $3.2-billion merger agreement Tyson terminated. "Tyson's actions are completely unjustified by anything that has transpired and we will do what is necessary to protect our shareholders and our company," said Robert Peterson, IBP's chief executive. Tyson said late Thursday it terminated the agreement to acquire the Dakota Dunes, S.C.