Excel says it will give Ottumwa a look for beef plant

The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association and Excel corporation will meet with officials from Ottumwa later this month to discuss building a new beef packing plant there. Residents in Cambridge and Iowa Falls have already shunned the plant. Association president Wyth Willey says several questions must be answered.Cambridge and Iowa Falls residents questioned the packing industry’s history of paying low wages. Willey says that wouldn’t be a problem, as the average wage had the plant gone into Story County, would’ve been above the average wage of the county.Concerns have also been raised about the impact of bringing in hundreds of new employees to a community. Willey says it took 100 years for the packing industry to get a reputation, and it won’t change overnight.The President of the Iowa Farmers Union, John Witaker, lives in southwest Iowa. He says there doesn’t seem to be as many critics of the plant there.Whitaker admits that Ottumwa is a long way to drive for cattle producers in the northwestern corner of the state. Willey says the other downside is that Excel would be competing with itself for workers in Ottumwa. The two men made their comments during taping of the Iowa Public TV program “Iowa Press.”