Workers at Tyson Fresh Meats began meeting Tuesday with members of the Kansas Works team to learn about options and services that are available as a result of Tyson’s eliminating 1,500 jobs at the plant last Friday.
The meetings were scheduled from 4:30 to 11 p.m. Tuesday afternoon and were to resume this morning at 7:30 according to Doug Ewing, project director of Kansas Works. Representatives from the Emporia office and the Pittsburg project office were scheduled to participate, meeting with three separate groups at a time in intervals of about 15 minutes.
Ewing said that more intense rapid-response meetings would be held later.
Ewing said Tuesday afternoon that representatives of the team speaking with the employees initially would “let them know we’re here and there’s going to be additional meetings down the road to describe all of the partners in the community.”
In southeast Kansas, Kansas Works is operated under contract with the state by the Dynamic Education Systems Inc. (DESI), which employs Ewing. DESI operates the Kansas Works Center in Emporia, formerly known as the Job Service Center. DESI employees and Kansas Department of Commerce leaders have been gathering a team from a variety of entities that can provide necessary services for Tyson employees as operations at the plant wind down. Ewing said he expected participation from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, the Mental Health Center of East Central Kansas and others. Post-secondary education would be a key component of the meetings, he said.
“We’re in the process of contacting partners, trying to get these folks all the information they’re going to need to make decisions,” Ewing said before the meetings began.
One of the primary pieces of information he and the others planned to give the workers was that it will be essential for them to stay with their jobs until the last day, to remain eligible for unemployment payments and other benefits. “There’s a tendency to get in a state of shock when you have this much notice and say, ‘What the heck, I’m going to quit and go job hunting,’” Ewing said. “Well, they just threw their benefits away. Unemployment’s a big issue. … They’re giving up a lot if they leave early.”
Eligible employees can receive unemployment up to 26 weeks, under normal circumstances, with training benefits available from the Workforce Investment Act. “There will be opportunities presented to people,” Ewing said. No extension of unemployment benefits is available at this time, he said. Under some circumstances, benefits can be extended another 13 weeks. Application for that would need to be made by Tyson, or by a minimum of three employees who had lost their jobs as a result of the company’s action.
“They have to file a petition for trade adjustment assistance benefits,” Ewing said. “I’m sure they’ll take a look at it, but it’s too early to say that’s going to happen or it’s not going to happen. The U.S. Department of Labor will have to make that determination.”