Sand Mountain Reporter

HEFLIN — Albertville’s Tyson Foods plant stands to receive several new workers from Cleburne County after a fire destroyed their plant.

Workers displaced by a fire at the poultry plant in Heflin are being offered immediate employment at the company’s other Alabama processing facilities.

In addition, workers will also receive 40 hours worth of pay for this week, even though the plant has been idle.

The Heflin processing facility was extensively damaged by fire on Sept. 23. In fact, the roof collapsed in some areas.

The plant, which employs 267 people, was not in operation when the fire started; however, outside contractors were on-site doing roofing work

There were no injuries.

“We’re very concerned by the severity of the damage and how this disruption in business affects our team members and the community,” said Bill Lovette, senior group vice president of Poultry and Prepared Foods, who visited the Heflin plant Tuesday.

“A Tyson operations and engineering team has examined the site and is now considering our options going forward. However, even if we decide to rebuild, it will be many months before the plant is operational.”

In order to help affected hourly workers employed at Heflin, the company is offering them jobs at Tyson plants in Albertville, Ashland, Blountsville and Gadsden.

If they accept, they will retain their Tyson seniority and will receive comparable pay and benefits.

Workers are being asked to fill out a form indicating their preferred plant and shift.

They will subsequently be instructed when and where to report for work on Monday.

Many of the plant’s management workers have already been reassigned to other Tyson plants.

Mickelson told The Anniston Star that more than half of the Heflin plant’s employees lived outside Cleburne County.

The Star reported that Tyson processed 1 million chickens per week at Heflin, 20 percent of its output in the state.

Tyson’s hourly employees from Heflin received checks this week for the work they performed last week before the fire.

They will also later receive 40 hours worth of pay for this week, even though the plant was not operational.

“We value our Heflin team members and want to retain as many of them as possible,” Lovette said.

“While the fire has created new challenges for all of us, we hope they choose to remain with the company.”

As a result of the offer of jobs at other Tyson plants, the company may experience temporary overstaffing at some locations, however, company officials believe employment numbers will stabilize over time through normal attrition.

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Serving Albertville and the Sand Mountain region

Publisher: Ben Shurett

1603 Progress Drive
Albertville, Alabama 35950

Tel: 256-840-3000 | Email

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