Hormel, meat processors to pay $13.5 M in Colorado wage-fixing settlement

Update: 

• Hormel Foods Corp. and two meat processing plants are the latest companies to reach a settlement with meat plant workers. 
• On Aug. 22, Hormel, Rochelle Foods LLC and Quality Pork Processors Inc. agreed to a $13.5 million settlement in a Colorado wage-fixing lawsuit, joining a host of other companies that have reached deals to end claims they colluded to decrease wages in the red meat processing industry.
• The settlement comes after a previous $1.25 million settlement with Perdue Farms Inc., a $10 million settlement with Seabord Foods LLC. and settlements with JBS and Tyson.

Meat settlement overview: 

• Who: Plaintiffs Ron Brown, Minka Garmon and Jessie Crof agreed to a $10 million settlement agreement in a class action lawsuit against Seabord Foods LLC and a cooperation agreement with Triumph Foods.
• Why: Seabord was accused of illegally setting wages across the red meat processing industry along with two consulting companies.
• Where: The meat settlement came in federal court in Colorado.

(Aug. 18, 2023)

Plaintiffs Ron Brown, Minka Garmon, and Jessie Crof reached a $10 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against Seabord Foods LLC. The plaintiffs accused the company of illegally setting prices across the red meat processing industry along with two consulting companies.

The settlements come after a previous $1.25 million settlement with Perdue Farms Inc. Both Seabord and Triumph agreed to cooperation agreements to release data from the settlement period and four years prior, documents from five custodians and testimony from five employees along with phone records and authentication of documents.

The class will include all meat plant workers at beef-processing and pork-processing plants in the continental United States who worked from Jan. 1, 2014, to the date of the first preliminary settlement agreement approval.

Meat plant workers agreed to settlement instead of continuing long, costly legal proceeding, lawyers said

The meat plant workers settlement was agreed to because plaintiffs’ lawyers believed the settlement was better than a long, costly legal proceeding.

 “This action was filed after a comprehensive investigation by Plaintiffs’ counsel, which included assessments of industry wages, interviewing industry witnesses, and extensive research into the red meat processing industry,” the settlement says. “As a result of that investigation, Plaintiffs’ lengthy complaint is supported by specific allegations, including allegations that Defendants entered into an illegal agreement in violation of the Sherman Act.”

Smithfield agreed earlier this year to a $75 million antitrust class action lawsuit settlement to end claims it worked with other pork manufacturers to raise and fix the price of pork products, causing consumers to be overcharged for pork.

Have you ever worked in a red meat processing plant? Let us know in the comments.

The plaintiffs are represented by Shana E. Scarlett of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, George F. Farah of Handley Farah and Anderson PLLC along with Brent W. Johnson of Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll PLLC.

The Meat plant workers class action lawsuit is Brown, et al. v. JBS USA Food Company, et al., Case No. 1:22-cv-02946-PAB-STV, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado.

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