Colorado & Denver News

GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Greeley and in five other states were running at reduced levels on Wednesday, one day after nearly 1,300 employees were arrested in a massive immigration sweep that temporarily halted operations, the company said.

The blow to Swift's 20,000-person global workforce came after the company cheered the resumption of U.S. beef exports to Japan after being blocked for 2 1/2 years.

Greeley-based Swift, which calls itself the world's second-largest fresh beef and pork processor, said operations had resumed at reduced levels on Tuesday at the plants in Greeley; Grand Island, Neb.; Cactus, Texas; Hyrum, Utah; Marshalltown, Iowa; and Worthington, Minn.

In a written statement, Swift said all shifts were operating at all the plants on Wednesday but production was expected to be below normal in the short term.

The statement did not say how much production was lost Tuesday or how long it would be before it returned to normal.

Company officials did not return messages seeking comment.

The trade publication Cattle Buyers Weekly estimates Swift has the capacity to process 15,850 cattle per day and about 46,000 hogs per day, editor and publisher Steve Kay said.

That would rank Swift behind Tyson Foods Inc. and Cargill Meat Solutions for beef processing and behind Smithfield Foods Inc. and Tyson for hogs, Kay said. He estimated that Tyson can process up to 32,600 cattle per day while Smithfield can process 101,100 hogs per day.

The six plants that were raided represent all of Swift's domestic beef processing capacity and 77 percent of its pork processing capacity.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Washington said a total of 1,282 people were arrested at the plants in what the agency described as a crackdown on an identity-theft scheme.

But ICE said 1,217 of the detainees were being held on immigration charges alone and only 65 were facing identity-theft or other criminal charges.

The agency said more charges were possible as the investigation continues.

No charges were filed against Swift. President and CEO Sam Rovit has said the company has never knowingly hired illegal workers and does not condone the practice.

A new state law that takes effect Jan. 1 penalizes companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants.

Like others in the domestic beef industry, Swift was hurt when Japan banned U.S. beef in December 2003 after mad cow disease was reported in a U.S. herd. The ban was eased this summer after U.S. and Japanese officials agreed to strict restrictions and checks at American meat processing plants.

However in November, Japan halted beef imports from the Greeley plant after a shipment arrived without proper documentation and faced a tour by Japanese officials.

Privately held Swift & Co. traces its roots to 1855, when 16-year-old Gustavus Swift bought his first heifer and started the business with a $20 loan from his father.

It later operated as ConAgra Meats Co., the fresh beef and pork processing business of ConAgra Foods Inc., which also acquired the Greeley-based family business Monfort Inc., at one point the world's largest cattle feeding operation.

Hicks, Muse, Tate & Furst Inc. and Booth Creek Management Corp., run by former Vail ski area owner George Gillett Jr., bought a majority interest in the fresh beef and pork processing business of ConAgra Foods Inc. for $1.4 billion in 2002.

With about 2,500 employees in town, Swift has the largest employee base in Greeley, Chamber of Commerce President Sarah MacQuiddy said. The plant lost 261 employees to the roundup Tuesday.

The starting hourly wage is $11.75, topping out at $13.35, a union representative said. But with the unemployment rate running at 4 percent, it was unclear how difficult it would be to find enough workers to fill jobs of arrested employees who are unable to return.

Additional Resources

• In 2006, Colorado was ranked as the fifth worst state when it comes to identity theft. For a list of resources if you think you think you might be a victim, check out the CBS4 story What To Do If You're An Identity Theft Victim.
  

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