Tyson CEO Donnie King was in Dakota Dunes this afternoon to address employees at that facility after the company announced they are closing the Dunes corporate headquarters in the next few months.
Workers must decide if they will move to Springdale, Arkansas to work at the company’s main headquarters or leave Tyson. Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott and chamber president Chris McGowan say they were not given access to speak with King about the decision.
Scott said at the end of Monday night’s Sioux City council meeting the move is tough for the Siouxland area.”It’s going to have a terrible impact. To lose 580 employees in this area is really tough to swallow,” he says.
Scott hopes the tri-state governors will try to intervene in Tyson’s decision. “I would like to think that we have three governors whose communities are going to be terribly, adversely affected by this — that they would get together, and go see the people at Tyson, write letters, do whatever,” Scott said. “But take the lead on this, because they are not going to listen to local communities, and it’s terribly important that we don’t lose those jobs.”
A Tyson statement says that details of what King told the employees at a 1:30 p.m. meeting would not be released. News media were not allowed access to the Tyson CEO during his visit.
(By Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)