Tyson Foods to shutter Dawson poultry plant

DAWSON — Tyson Foods announced Friday that the company’s poultry plant in Dawson will cease operations immediately, costing the local economy 300 jobs.

The company cited a fire at the plant last month as the reason behind the closure.

Tyson officials issued the following statement Friday:

Last month, a fire broke out on the dock at our Dawson, Georgia, production facility. Thankfully, we did not have any injuries, but the damage to the plant was substantial. As a result, we immediately suspended all operations at the plant while we investigated and assessed the full extent of the damage.

We made the decision to continue to pay everyone who worked full-time at the facility through June 2. And we’ve met customer needs with uninterrupted service from different locations.

We took a detailed look at what it would take to rebuild the Dawson, Georgia, facility. Based on a number of factors, we’ve made the difficult decision to permanently close the facility.

The team members who have worked at this facility have done an outstanding job, and today’s announcement is not a reflection of them or the quality of their work. Our 300 full-time team members who worked at the plant have been notified. All hourly team members will be offered a job at our nearby Vienna, Georgia, facility, and we will work with all management and management support on options to apply for available positions at our other plants throughout the country. We will work closely with state and local officials to ensure all our team members in Dawson are connected with the resources and assistance available to them.

We’ll be adding capacity at other facilities to continue to grow with our customers. Thank you to everyone for your commitment to this business, for caring for our team members and customers during this transition, and for everything you do for Tyson Foods.

Friday’s announcement devastated the county’s two legislative members: state Rep. Gerald Greene and state Sen. Freddie Powell Sims.

“This is terrible news for this community,” Greene said. “Aside from the school system, I think Tyson was the county’s largest manufacturing employer.”

Dawson City Manager Barney Parnacott was out of town Friday and unavailable for comment

Greene said the company will pay its former employees five weeks worth of salary and offered workers positions in Vienna, where a similar Tyson plant is located.

“Vienna is mighty far for our folks to go, especially with the cost of gas now,” Greene said. “It’s really a hard blow to this area. The loss of 300 to 350 jobs to this area is going to be tough to overcome.”

Sims agreed with her colleague.

“It’s not only a terrible blow for Terrell County, it’s also a terrible blow to southwest Georgia and this area, period,” she said. “If you look at how we spend time trying to woo businesses here. We talk about tax incentives for those companies who are seeking business expansions, seeking to relocate or just come to a community. We’re not doing a very good job of using those incentives to get folks into southwest Georgia. And we’ve been doing this for years. For the past three or four years, we’ve been trying to get the Legislature and the executive branch to help communities and cities just like ours.

“I don’t know if we’re using the resources that the Legislature and executive branch have put into place wisely. I’m talking about tax incentives and tax credits.”