TYSON FOODS, INC. | Report on the anticipated impact of recent changes in US immigration practices on the company’s finances and operations at TYSON FOODS, INC.

Status
Filed
AGM date
Proposal number
3
Resolution details
Company ticker
TSN
Lead filer
N/A
Resolution ask
Report on or disclose
ESG theme
  • Governance
ESG sub-theme
  • Other
Type of vote
Shareholder proposal
Filer type
Shareholder
Company sector
Consumer Staples
Company HQ country
United States
Resolved clause
Shareholders request that Tyson Foods, Inc. (Tyson) issue a report at reasonable cost and excluding proprietary information, providing the board and management’s assessment of the anticipated impact of recent changes in United States (US) immigration law, policies, and enforcement priorities on the company’s finances and operations.
Whereas clause
Immigrants represent 33% of US meatpacking industry workers.1 As of 2024, Tyson employs around 120,000 team members in the US,2 42,000 (35%) of whom are immigrants.3 All Tyson team members are required to have US work authorization,4 but, in a sector already experiencing a severe labor shortage, the unpredictable elimination of work authorizations under new US immigration policy may exacerbate the labor shortage and already existing labor problems.5 The meat industry’s lobbying group, the Meat Institute, estimates the shutdown of programs like humanitarian parole will result in 20% of the meat processing workforce losing their jobs.6 While Tyson has not provided information on the number of team members it has lost as a result of changes to immigration laws, at just one Tyson site, 100 workers were likely to lose their work authorization and face deportation, as a result of the cancellation of a humanitarian parole program.7
The rapidly changing immigration legal landscape presents additional challenges. Understanding and complying with rapidly changing laws places an increased burden and risk of violating the law on Tyson. Additional concerns regarding E-Verify’s accuracy in determining work authorization present compliance risks to Tyson. At a peer company’s plant, the government arrested 76 workers due to E-verify errors, scaring other workers from showing up to work, and ultimately reducing production by 70%.8 Unpredictability in the changing immigration landscape and the potential for work authorization revocations also hinder Tyson’s ability to effectively forecast and plan for long-term success.9
The increased labor shortage resulting from immigration policy changes may also exacerbate the already-existing illegal child labor problem in the meatpacking industry, as vulnerable children are exploited to fill these gaps in very dangerous jobs with few or no protections.10 Tyson already faces risks related to illegal child labor, as a 2023 Department of Labor (DOL) investigation found 7 children illegally working in Tyson’s plant.11 The DOL launched a separate investigation into whether Tyson had relied on migrant child labor to clean its slaughterhouses, which is ongoing.12
Despite the risks Tyson faces as a result of recent changes in immigration policy, it provides no disclosure of such risks; several of its competitors have done so.13
Supporting statement
In the discretion of board and management, such report could also be verified by an independent auditor and indicate:
•how estimates and assumptions in the financial statements are affected by recent changes in US immigration law, policies, and enforcement priorities;
•any risk mitigation measures the Company has taken or plans to take.

DISCLAIMER: By including a shareholder resolution or management proposal in this database, neither the PRI nor the sponsor of the resolution or proposal is seeking authority to act as proxy for any shareholder; shareholders should vote their proxies in accordance with their own policies and requirements.

Any voting recommendations set forth in the descriptions of the resolutions and management proposals included in this database are made by the sponsors of those resolutions and proposals, and do not represent the views of the PRI.

Information on the shareholder resolutions, management proposals and votes in this database have been obtained from sources that are believed to be reliable, but the PRI does not represent that it is accurate, complete, or up-to-date, including information relating to resolutions and management proposals, other signatories’ vote pre-declarations (including voting rationales), or the current status of a resolution or proposal. You should consult companies’ proxy statements for complete information on all matters to be voted on at a meeting.