by Kevin Lilly
Hundreds of Tyson Foods workers lined up at Ramada Inn Wednesday morning awaiting their chance to begin registering for unemployment benefits. The line stretched from the hotel entrance to Market Street for most of the morning.
John Jackson of Kokomo said he appreciated the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 700 providing assistance to its members.
“It kind of hit us off guard, but we’re blessed we have jobs and a union looking out for us,” Jackson said.
The Indiana Department of Workforce Development offered materials on understanding unemployment. The union supplied interpreters for Hispanic and Burmese workers who do not understand English. Ivy Tech’s computer labs will be available through Friday for logging onto the state’s unemployment Web site.
Union representative Juan Garcia said more than 1,800 Tyson Foods employees have been affected by the fire that reportedly caused heavy smoke, water and heat damage to the machines and the structure, and bowed some beams.
The Logansport-Cass County Economic Development Foundation helped coordinate the efforts to get the Tyson employees signed up for unemployment as a way to avoid overwhelming Workforce Development. LEDF president Skip Kuker said it recognized that missing a week of work can be devastating to an employee’s budget.
The state requires a minimum waiting period of one week before a person can receive benefits, Kuker said. Even if work resumes next week, the effort to sign everyone up will not be wasted, he said.
The employees have to be registered in the state’s system by Saturday night so they can become eligible for unemployment benefits starting next week. Also, the week-off credit remains good for one year.
“If they become unemployed again for some reason, their wait week is already taken care of for the year,” Kuker said.
As of Wednesday, Garcia remained uncertain when all Local 700 members will return to work.
“We don’t know for sure,” he said.
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson reported Monday that the plant expects work in its slaughter area to resume this week or early next week. Limited pork processing began Saturday.
Employee Kevin Boller of Royal Center has been off four days and counting. He fears the worst. He has heard rumors of two to four weeks. Employees were told to call Saturday to learn when they should report back to work, Boller said.
Jackson is optimistic about returning to work soon.
“Hopefully we won’t be off too long,” he said.
In the meantime, Jackson is making the most of his time off by working on projects around the his house.
Boller pointed out Tyson Foods waived its two-week wait period for vacation requests so he will be able to receive a check next week. He’s hoping to get back to work Monday.
Mickelson reported earlier this week that the roof cut open by firefighters in order to cool the building has been replaced. Workers were replacing equipment and running new electrical wiring. He did not respond to a request for additional information on Wednesday.
• Kevin Lilly is news editor of the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5117 or kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com.
Signing up
• Ivy Tech will have computers available for Tyson Foods employees from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. today and Friday.
