Catherwood LibraryILR School

With company records, secret surveillance and testimony from former managers and undercover agents involved in a three-year sting, the U.S. Justice Department will tomorrow begin a conspiracy case against poultry and meatpacking giant Tyson Foods Inc. In an indictment that the Tyson corporation plead not guilty to a little over a year ago (see WIT for Jan. 25, 2002), the federal government charges that Tyson and a number of its managers conspired to smuggle undocumented immigrants into the country and provide them with false Social Security cards and other ID in order to exploit them for cheap labor. The trial---involving violations of U.S. immigration law at 15 poultry-processing plants in nine southern states---is expected to take two months, and is separate from a civil suit in which former employees are seeking treble damages against the corporation under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) for the same acts (see WIT for April 3, 2002).