Jennie-O Turkey Store will pay $3.5 million as part of a $180 million settlement of a lawsuit claiming it and nine other big poultry companies unlawfully conspired to suppress wages and fix competition for production and maintenance employees.
Jennie-O to pay $3.5M to settle wage suppression lawsuit
Nine other companies, including Tyson and Butterball, also agreed to the settlement of the federal lawsuit, which totals $180 million.
By Rachel Hoppe
February 26, 2025 at 10:20PM
The settlement means people who worked between Jan. 1, 2000, and July 20, 2021, for the companies, which also include Tyson and Butterball, may be eligible for back pay.
Between this and earlier settlements, the poultry workers are expected to recoup about $398 million, according to reporting from Law360, which first reported the settlement.
“It is a great privilege to represent these workers and get money back for folks that they should have been paid, especially when they’re in really, really difficult jobs,” Brent Johnson, the attorney representing the poultry workers, said in a statement.
Hormel, which owns Willmar-based Jennie-O, did not respond to a request for comment.
Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who serves the U.S. District Court in Maryland, approved the motion for settlement on Feb. 11.
The settlement includes workers from all the companies’ operations from processing plants to hatcheries and feeding mills, according to the court order. It excludes managers, human resources employees, office staff, security guards and salespeople.
Workers initially filed the suit in 2019, claiming leaders from the 10 companies met for “off the books” meetings in the Hilton Sandestin Resort Hotel & Spa in Destin, Fla., to discuss poultry industry compensation. The meetings were not recorded.
Workers should receive notices in the mail about the settlement in the coming weeks.
The workers’ lawsuit is not the only one accusing poultry companies of colluding on prices. Cargill, for example, already agreed to pay $32.5 million to settle claims by grocery wholesalers, restaurants and other “direct purchasers” that the nation’s largest turkey companies shared “competitively sensitive” data with each other in order to profit from higher turkey prices, according to the lawsuit.
Rachel Hoppe is a University of Minnesota student reporter on assignment for the Minnesota Star Tribune. Her email is rachel.hoppe@startribune.com.
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The Maplewood-based company wants to launch 1,000 new products in the next three years and automate some factory work that could eventually reduce headcount by 700 people.
