Meatpacking data firm Agri Stats has agreed to change its reporting practices to resolve a lawsuit alleging it conspired with major beef and pork processors to lower workers' wages.
The company has proposed a settlement to resolve allegations brought by former meat sector workers in 2022, according to court filings.
As part of the settlement, Agri Stats agreed to remove 25 plant-level data categories in future reports, including fields regarding wage rates, labor efficiency, labor cost by cut type, and pigs per man hour. However, the agreement noted that the company is not currently publishing pork processing reports and "has no plans to resume such reports," though Agri Stats agreed to give the plaintiffs two weeks' notice should it resume those reports in the next five years.
Agri Stats also agreed to give the plaintiffs structured data for swine processing and operations profit books from 2008 to 2018, respond to plaintiffs' questions about the data, and identify up to five employees to participate as in-trial witnesses.
In agreeing to the settlement, Agri Stats did not admit to any wrongdoing. The company is looking to end the lawsuit to avoid further expense, inconvenience, and disruption, according to the agreement text.
Before it can be finalized, the settlement requires the approval of Judge Philip Brimmer of U.S. District Court in Colorado, who is overseeing the case.
The filing also included a request for the judge's approval of a settlement with Greater Omaha Packing Company, which agreed to pay $100,000 to resolve claims made against it in the suit. Plaintiffs in the case have thus far reached $202.8 million worth of settlements with 13 parties in the case, including Greater Omaha Packing and Agri Stats.
So far, Tyson Foods has agreed to settle for $72.5 million, while JBS Foods agreed to settle for $55 million, Cargill for $29.7 million, National Beef Packing Company for $14.2 million, Hormel Foods for $13.5 million, Seaboard Foods for $10 million, American Foods Group for $4 million, Agri Beef Co. and Washington Beef for $1.4 million, Perdue Farms for $1.25 million, and Indiana Packers Corp. for $1.1 million.
The plaintiffs, former meat industry workers Ron Brown and Minka Garmon, first filed the lawsuit on Nov. 11, 2022. In it, they accused red meat processors and their subsidiaries of using "secret compensation surveys" to compare wage, salary and benefits information for workers, as well as "private, hours-long, 'roundtable' discussions" where executives would discuss the survey results.
Brown and Garmon had also alleged Hormel Foods, JBS, Seaboard Foods, Smithfield Foods, Triumph Foods and Tyson Foods used data provider Agri Stats to share information about pork processing workers, and that some of the companies involved in the lawsuit promised through "no poach" agreements to not recruit employees of other meat plants.
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