Thread: Town elated, then upset over plans for beef plant

"I'm not opposed to change, I'm just opposed to takeover," says Don Ukens, a Hooker native who shuttered his Main Street TV and appliance shop in the 1990s.

By JUSTIN JUOZAPAVICIUS
Associated Press




HOOKER, Okla. — People started giving up on this place years ago.

The drug store and five-and-dime closed. The Ford and Chevrolet dealerships left, too, along with the tractor-parts retailers.

Vacant brick storefronts with sheets of yellowed newspaper taped in the windows are reminders of what once was in this speck of a cattle town in the Oklahoma Panhandle, a place where there are more cows and hogs than people.

A couple months ago, the lumber store shut down. It was a last gasp.

"It's a damn shame to see a town like this," says Earl Meng, a member of the city council who has lived here for 60 years, as his pickup rolls over Hooker's cracked streets one recent morning.

Salvation, some locals hope, lies in a slaughterhouse.

Specifically, a Smithfield Beef processing plant to be built a few miles east of town, a $200 million project that will create as many as 3,000 jobs and put Hooker back on the map.

This would be the largest beef plant built in the United States in two decades, even as U.S. beef consumption has remained steady.

It's planned for an area that ranks among the nation's biggest producers of beef, grain and farm supplies. There are an estimated 600,000 head of cattle on farms within 25 miles of the proposed plant.

When the plans for the plant were announced in October, locals were ecstatic. But love turned quickly to loathing for a large group of residents who saw the plant as an attack on what was left of their struggling town.

They fear that the bulk of the jobs will be too low-paying and attract immigrants who will overwhelm city services.

"I'm not opposed to change, I'm just opposed to takeover," says Don Ukens, a Hooker native who shuttered his Main Street TV and appliance shop in the 1990s.

Beef plant workers earn around $10 an hour, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The jobs are dirty, strenuous and sometimes dangerous and attract a high number of immigrant laborers at plants across the U.S.

"It's a hard and relatively low-paying job, but it's the only opportunity that exists for many of these workers," says Cornell University professor Lance Compa, an expert in labor law and international labor rights. "These companies take advantage of these groups, they get super-exploited."

Critics of the plant accuse local and state officials of rolling over for Smithfield and wonder who will pay for the expansion of the school buildings, fixing the streets and hiring new police officers as the town of 1,700 balloons.

Industry experts have concerns, too. Days after the plant's announcement, JP Morgan Chase analyst Pablo E. Zuanic wrote that a processing plant that size — that would process 5,000 head of cattle daily — would add too much capacity to the industry and worsen the plight of beef packers, already dealing with a glut of meat and poultry in the market that has held prices down.

Zuanic also questioned whether Smithfield was even going to build in Hooker. He theorized the real goal might be to buy out longtime rival Swift and the threat of a new plant would help achieve the takeover.

Last week, Smithfield Foods Inc. said it expected to report a decline in its fiscal third-quarter profit compared with a year ago. Last fiscal year, it had earnings of $172.7 million on $11.4 billion in sales.

As residents trade facts and rumors about the plant in Sunday church, farmer Jackie Stevens says she prays to God every night not to let the plant come.

"It's going to destroy the life we know," Stevens says.

Rancher John Hairford is the unofficial leader of a group of 140 residents who oppose the plant, fearing it will lead to increased taxes, a crowded town and an influx of illegal immigrants.

"I have nothing against Latinos coming up here legally to work," Hairford says. "What we don't need is the gangs; we don't want the criminals."

Meat operations in nearby Guymon; Cactus, Texas and Liberal, Kan., have attracted thousands of Mexican and Guatemalan laborers to the area in the past decade. Many already have settled in Hooker.

Retiree Howard Kopel, who lives a couple miles from where the plant will go, says, "We're going to give our community to a bunch of strangers. I don't care if they come from old Mexico or New York City, but they're strangers and they bring another culture."

Hooker's demography is already changing because of the neighboring meat plants.

Dozens of residents attend the Primera Iglesia Bautista, an outreach of the Baptist church here. Their kids go to the high school, where at least half the candidates for basketball homecoming queen were Latina.

"They live here, they're going to buy groceries here, they rent houses," says Ruth Thompson, who teaches Sunday school at the iglesia and travels to Mexico every year on mission trips. "They do everything everybody else does."

Still, there is tension, perhaps heightened by federal immigration raids at Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in six states in December.

A sign for the local inn on the outskirts of town announces that it is American-owned.

For Smithfield's part, the company has no specific details yet on how it will assist the community, but has pledged to work with local officials as problems arise.

"Some folks probably look at this as a big change, so there is some level of trepidation," says Mark Linzmeier, group vice president for business development for Smithfield Beef in Green Bay, Wis.

Linzmeier would not address speculation that his company is angling to buy Swift, but says the "plant is happening" in Hooker and there is plenty of room in the region for the beef operation.

Ground breaking for the plant had been scheduled for January, but the company now says it will occur sometime during the first quarter. Linzmeier said Smithfield recently obtained building permits for the project.

He dismissed suggestions from some local officials that there has been a lack of contact between the company and the town.

"We're not a big fanfare company; that's not our style," he said.

State Rep. Gus Blackwell, whose district includes Hooker, would like to see the company do more to communicate about issues that have been raised.

"I think Ronald Reagan had it best: trust, but verify," he said. "(There's) a lot of problems to work out; we do need a contact person. Should this go on for another three or four months of nothing, it will cause concern."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hea ... 66708.html

As residents trade facts and rumors about the plant in Sunday church, farmer Jackie Stevens says she prays to God every night not to let the plant come.

"It's going to destroy the life we know," Stevens says

She is so right. This is the part of Oklahoma that I am originally from and Seaboard runied the town and surrounding area that I was raised in. Hooker is not far from there and is already changed, Smithfield will finish them off. Unfortunately most of the greedier local officials/ government in that area could care less about what is good for the community. The irresistable carrot in front of their nose....the almighty dollar.

Since you're an xHooker, you might enjoy the Hooker Forum.

http://www.topix.net/forum/city/hooker-ok

But I thought our politicians cared about small town America... I guess tired of these people that STILL can't differentiate between legal and illegal immigrants.

If you want to see the TRUE effect of illegal immigration you have to go to the small towns. How much do you here about Dallas, Houston, New York, LA, Miami, or Chicago trying to pass ordinances against landlords or employers of illegals. How many are trying to make English the official language. NONE! They are too big to see the negative effect. The illegals can hide there with little detection. Thus we have sanctuary cities. I

t's the small towns like Farmers Branch, Hazleton, Pahrump, and Hooker that are affected most of all. And when they try to fight, they are called racists, xenophobes, etc. I think they are patriots for worrying about the desecration of our nation and for not falling asleep at the wheel like so many in DC and our large cities have done.

loservillelabor wrote:

Since you're an xHooker, you might enjoy the Hooker Forum.

I am not from Hooker. I was raised on a ranch 30 miles away!! The town closest to the ranch was taken over by Seaboard! Thanks for the forum!

I guess we can refer to this as PUTAtive progress

This may seem callous and I'm sorry if it does, but I think it may be better to let some small towns go rather than defeat our selves by discounting the importance of the law and our principles in order for a 'place' to survive.

Our nation having 'open spaces' is not a bad thing.
Every time a fence is run, the world gets a little smaller.

TyRANTosaur wrote:

t's the small towns like Farmers Branch, Hazleton, Pahrump, and Hooker that are affected most of all. And when they try to fight, they are called racists, xenophobes, etc. I think they are patriots for worrying about the desecration of our nation and for not falling asleep at the wheel like so many in DC and our large cities have done

Towns like Hazelton are lucky because they have people in their city government that will fight against the invasion the city governments in Guymon and Hooker are encouraging it because of greed factor.

When Guymon, Oklahoma voted for Seaboard to come there 10 years ago, only the residents that lived in town were allowed to vote on whether to bring it in and they were brainswashed by city govenment in to believing the town would dry up amd blow away if Seaboard was not allowed in, although it was existing just fine without it.

The farmers and ranchers in the county who would be very affected with the pig farms and the illegals operating them located right next to their properties were not allowed to vote on it, because they of course would vote NO. It was awful and the farmers and rancher tried their best to fight it but they were out numbered and out manuvered. The residents in town now wish they had not voted it in. Main street has latino shops where there used to be Mom and Pop stores and the town is filled with illegals perpetrating crimes. It is sad to think about . The corruption remains the same there, most likely much worse. It is a relief not to live in that area anymore.

The real hell begins when they've been around long enough to become teachers, lawyers, judges and politicians.
When the biased hiring and promoting is rubber stamped by the courts and Deputies and government officials and employees are force fired out of jobs so "minorities" can fill them (as they have all over California).
When your children come home from school ashamed of who they are and every person who has a union or good paying job seemingly looks familiar.
Your either living in California or it's too late.

Sovereign, I can tell that you speak from experience, and it is a sad one. I can relate.

The bright side is we are all here to kick butt on this invasion and I believe that we can!!! We just need to stay real POED and PUSH ON!!!