The Highwire with Del Bigtree - ARE AMERICAN WORKERS BEING REPLACED WITH MIGRANTS?

Episode Date: March 24, 2024

Tyson Foods faces boycott calls for its hiring practices while we take a look at issues surrounding declining American farmland and foreign land ownership.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

Last week, we were reporting on, you know, a lot of these farmers, you see farmer protests throughout the world at this point. And there's been really a negotiation that they weren't at the table for. And that is the farms are going to be gone and it's going to be replaced by what looks like fake meat and insect protein. So along comes Tyson. Tyson foods, it's been a bad year for them. We reported last week that they partnered with Protex to expand into the insect ingredient industry. And then they started closing plants over this past year. Here's one of the headlines.

Tyson is closing four plants as chicken sales slump. You go into that is actually six total. One of the most recent one is this one in Iowa. Reuters is reporting at Tyson Foods to Close Iowa Pork Plant with 1,200 workers, just devastating that town. But last week, as we're reporting, a report segment came out from Bloomberg regarding Tyson, and it looked like this. It already employs about 42,000 immigrants and immigrants.

refugees but it sees this part of the workforce as a particularly good one for immigrants they like to stay they've they've often come from very difficult situations and so the company is really investing a lot of services for them whether it's English language classes certain child care services to try and convince them you know come stay you may make only $16.50 an hour to start but this is a good job so you're at a Tyson fair in New York City not so long where Tyson was basically making this pitch. What did you observe when you went there?

They went out, they created a database for these new asylum seekers in New York City. Specifically, they recorded all their documents, and so Tyson reached out to them. They went through their database. They went through the list, said, you meet the work authorization criteria, you want to relocate, and we think also that you'll meet our physical. So these people would come in, they'd learn a little bit about the company, and for the most part, Tyson had already gone through their various details of their application. And so many of them, 17 the day I was there, and then another 70, a couple weeks later, went off to Tennessee to go start their new jobs as Tyson production workers.

I'm going to let you explain this for me because I feel like I want to just start ranting and raving. But I want to make sure it'll get on the wrong side of the story. So what is going on here? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So that wasn't just a one-off job fair. This is a commitment that Tyson made under something called the Tent Partnership. The tent partnership is an organization, and you can actually see they have a page there for Tyson Foods. And it says right on that page, commitment types, hiring and training mentorship.

And you start to read into that. And it says in 2022, Tyson Foods committed to hiring 2,500 refugees over three years in the United States. Tyson's Foods will provide its refugee employees with on-site classes through its Upward Academy and Upward Pathways program, including professional skills training, English as a second language courses, citizenship and legal assistance, general education development certification, digital literacy classes, and financial literacy training. And it's not just Tyson. You go to this tent partnership. You go to the website.

It's over 400 multinational corporations. Some of the biggest ones in the United States, you can see are scrolling through all of the organizations that have committed, have different levels, commitment types to hiring what they're saying are refugees. And so why is this such a big problem? Well, at the same time, you're seeing headlines in America. I mean, it's like, you're burying the lead here, Jeffrey. Yeah. Well, at the same time, you're seeing headlines in America that look like this. This was on March 8th.

U.S. unemployment rate rises to highest level in over two years. Another one from the Wall Street Journal. U.S. homeless count surges 12% to highest record level. And so there's no surprise that you started seeing this gigantic backlash here. This was a multimillion-dollar fund manager ditches Tyson food saying, Sacking U.S. workers to hire 4,200 asylum seekers. And then another one here, Tyson Foods faces boycott after report claims company hires migrants. I mean, that's, I mean, look, not to jump on that bandwagon, but how do you see this any other way? You know, and, and I want to go to my roots and say,

yes, we're a nation of immigrants, for sure. We want diversity. But when you're watching headlines, Tyson devastates a city by laying off 1,200 workers in a town of what, 5 or 6,000, but then days later goes and opens up a job fair for asylum seekers and refugees, and we're staring at a border that has 7 million people pouring through it without being stopped. We have talked to Michael Yon and these encampments in Panama that we're apparently funding so that we can move these, you know, illegal migrants into our country faster.

And then you see that list of multinational corporations lined up to employ these people, not the hardworking citizens of America that are struggling to, you know, afford housing or, you know, afford to eat. And, you know, it seems to me that at the very least, what I would like to see is you're not allowed to fire anybody within the five years that you decide to use this refugee program. I mean, at least something like that if we're going to do it at all. I mean, this is insane that we're now laying off hardworking Americans and hiring migrants. And now we have corporations lined up to do so.

That is really, really troubling. And the training aspect of it, too, there's a lot of American workers that have been out of the workforce and the tent partnership. And all these corporations are saying we're going to give you digital literacy classes, financial literacy classes, legal assistance, language classes. is professional skills training. I mean, just rolling out the red carpet to help get them on their feet. When there's American workers that have fallen down and need help getting back on their feet.

So it makes little sense. And you're driving down. You're going to drive down the salaries of people that are legally here. All the people that legally made it here. Now they're competing with the cheapest laborer in the world and this open flow. Hey, you don't like working. You don't like what we're paying you. there's a hundred other refugees right behind you, buddy.

I mean, this is why I think you're seeing, I was really, you know, been shocked to see how many, you know, Latin American, you know, people here are against the open border. I mean, it's really interesting to see the nuance. Like, you know, so many of them are saying, look, I got here because I work hard, I did it right, and why am I going to compete with someone that is, you know, just lined up and has their hand out and willing to take anything?

I mean, this is to me how you destroy a nation.