Union asks Minnesota meat processor to create child-welfare fund in wake of labor allegations

Amid contract negotiations with Tony Downs Foods, a workers union is calling on the company to establish a $50,000 “child well-being” fund to aid the town’s youth after state authorities last year accused the meatpacker of employing children as young as 13 years old.

“As one of the most dangerous industries to work in around the globe, it is very concerning to us when we hear that there are children working in this facility,” said Rena Wong, president of UFCW 663, a labor union representing workers at Tony Downs.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry fined Tony Downs $300,000 last September after an investigation turned up workers under 18 years of age at its Madelia meatpacking plant. It is illegal for youth to work at worksites deemed hazardous, including meatpacking plants.

Tony Downs, in a statement shared with the Star Tribune, said it was “disappointed” the union had “chosen to shift our contract negotiations to the public arena.” The company said the current contract expired months ago.

David Ross, vice president of human resources for Tony Downs, reiterated that the company did not knowingly hire anyone under 18 years of age.

“Tony Downs Food is fully committed that not one individual, especially one who is underage, works one minute for us without legitimate proof that they are eligible for employment.”

Tony Downs denied the allegations after agreeing to pay the fine — which it called a “grossly disproportionate” penalty — ordered by a Watonwan County judge.

The Mankato-based meat processor was far from the only plant to be accused of hiring minors.

In Worthington, a cleaning company that worked overnights at a JBS pork kill plant hired dozens of minors, becoming one of the focal points of a federal Department of Labor investigation. Federal authorities conducted similar investigations at other sites, turning up minors at a meat snack plant in Chandler, and cleaning at a turkey slaughterhouse in Marshall.

PSSI, the Wisconsin-based cleaning company that paid a $1 million fine to the Labor Department for employing children across the U.S., including in Minnesota, announced last summer that its workforce had unionized.

Jessica Lee Velasco, an organizer with Unidos MN, said teenagers’ first jobs should be working fast food or in a grocery store, not operating machinery at a slaughterhouse.

“These kids who were found working in meatpacking, they’re missing that vital step into their growing lives,” Lee Velasco said. “We’re robbing them of an important key moment.”

Wong and Lee Velasco said the fund — which would require Tony Downs to pay 10 cents an hour up to $50,000 annually — would fund activities, such as summer internships or other betterment activities developed in consultation with local communities.

The company said it had yet to hear the proposal from the union.

Wong said the fund could be a model for other meatpacking companies across the state and nation to address the healing to communities, often comprising immigrant workers, where child labor has been found.

A man who only identified himself as “Edgar” during Wednesday’s presentation that was hosted by the union and Unidos MN, said he worked at the HyLife pork plant that closed last year in Windom. He described multiple injuries sustained while on the assembly line, noting he is now unable to pick up his children.

“Meatpacking plants are not safe places for our children,” Edgar said. “Our children must be studying and preparing to build better opportunities.”

Over the past 16 months, there has been a wave of child labor allegations, aired both by federal authorities and media investigations. This coincided with heightened attention to the migration of children into the U.S. through the southern border, many seeking asylum.