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Prices, immigration rallies to cut Tyson meat output on Mon
Fri Apr 7, 2006 12:53 PM ET


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Top U.S. meat producer Tyson Foods Inc. said on Friday that it will reduce production for one day on Monday at its beef, pork, and chicken operations in response to market conditions and planned immigration rallies on that day.
"Some of our plants are not scheduled to operate Monday, due to multiple reasons including market conditions and the planned immigration rally," Gary Mickelson, Tyson spokesman, said in an e-mail.

About 30 percent of Tyson's workers are Hispanic and the company is studying what impact an immigration rally scheduled for that day will have on worker attendance at its plants.

A compromise bipartisan plan to overhaul the nation's immigration law failed on Friday on its first test vote in a sharply divided U.S. Senate.

Just a day after leaders from both parties agreed to the plan and predicted it would be widely embraced, new bickering shelved the measure amid complaints it would give amnesty to immigrants who illegally entered the country.

Tyson did not identify the market conditions prompting the reduction in output, but food analysts have said that U.S. meat companies have been struggling recently due to an abundance of beef, pork, and chicken. That abundance has pressured prices for the meat these companies sell.

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