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Glenn Valley Foods has skeleton staff after immigration

sweep

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Traders worry raids could disrupt US food production

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Meat processors face labor shortage, industry group says

By Tom Polansek

CHICAGO, June 11 (Reuters) - U.S. meat producer Glenn

Valley Foods was operating an Omaha, Nebraska, facility with

about 30% of its staff on Wednesday after federal agents

detained workers in an immigration raid the previous day,

slashing the output of products it sells to grocery stores and

restaurants, the company's president said.

In the wake of Tuesday's sweep by U.S. Immigration and

Customs Enforcement agents, livestock traders and market

analysts expressed concerns that the potential deportation of

undocumented workers from such raids could disrupt U.S. food

production at a time when beef prices have soared and meat

processors report a labor shortage.

ICE agents detained about 74 to 76 workers out of

roughly 140 at the Glenn Valley Foods plant, President Chad

Hartmann said. Other workers did not show up on Wednesday

because they felt afraid or traumatized, he said, adding that

the facility's production dropped to about 20% of normal.

Glenn Valley Foods sells steak, chicken and corned beef

products to restaurants and grocery stores, according to its

website.

Retail beef prices have set records as the size of the

U.S. cattle herd has declined to its lowest level in 70 years

after a years-long drought raised feed costs. Consumer demand

for steaks and hamburgers has stayed strong nevertheless.

Glenn Valley Foods is trying to determine how long it will

take to hire new employees, Hartmann said.

"The hole that got punched into our business is staffing,"

he said.

Livestock traders worried that immigration raids could slow

meat companies' demand to buy cattle from farmers to process

into beef, if the companies do not have enough workers. Chicago

Mercantile Exchange cattle futures came under pressure on

Tuesday during the raid, after recently hitting records.

"There's certainly going to be nervousness out there on

where the labor situation goes, going forward," said Matt

Wiegand, a commodity broker for risk management firm FuturesOne

in Nebraska.

Meatpackers still face an acute worker shortage, said

Julie Anna Potts, president of the Meat Institute industry

group. It worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic, when major

companies such as Tyson Foods ( TSN ) temporarily shut plants

because of a lack of workers.

Glenn Valley used E-Verify, a federal database used for

checking employees' immigration status. Hartmann said Homeland

Security told him on Wednesday that there was no better system.

"We will have to continue to use it," he said.

ICE said a criminal investigation was ongoing into what

immigration officials called a large-scale employment of

immigrants who are present in the U.S. illegally.

Footage of the Glenn Valley raid released by ICE showed

agents searching the plant, restraining workers' hands and

ankles, and taking them into custody.

ICE officers have been intensifying efforts in recent weeks

to deliver on U.S. President Donald Trump's agenda of

record-level deportations.

Tensions boiled over in Los Angeles over the weekend when

protesters took to the streets after ICE arrested migrants at

Home Depot stores, a garment factory and a warehouse, according

to rights advocates. On Tuesday night, demonstrators marched in

New York, Atlanta and Chicago.

More than half of all meatpacking workers in the U.S. are

immigrants, according to the Center for Economic and Policy

Research, a think tank.

The Omaha World-Herald newspaper said on Tuesday that raids

were also reported at local plants run by large meatpackers

Tyson and JBS USA. Tyson and JBS told Reuters their

facilities were not raided.