Meat firm starts fund for ex-staff after ‘pink slime’ payout
Founders of the South Dakota-based meat processor, the Roth family, received $177m from Walt Disney Company, owner of ABC News, in a lawsuit settlement in June 2017.
Beef Products Inc claimed that ABC News defamed its business by using the term “pink slime” in its reports and was responsible for “biased and baseless reporting”.
In 2012, the network ran a month-long series of stories about the business, which eventually forced the meat processor to cut 750 jobs and close three factories in Amarillo, Texas, Garden City, Kansas, and Waterloo, Iowa.
‘Committed’ to axed staff
After a three-week trial in June 2017, a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Walt Disney Company paid at least $177m to settle the litigation case against ABC News.
The Roth family has now confirmed $10m - around 5% of the settlement fee – will be put into a fund to help formers workers and communities in Amarillo, Garden City and Waterloo affected by the plant closures.
“We remain committed to our employees and communities and so are dedicating $10m to benefit the employees who lost their jobs in 2012,” said the meat processor’s founder Eldon Roth.
“While it took us longer to get here than we had hoped, we are pleased to finally be able to re-connect with those former employees and see what we can do to help them continue to recover.”
The company will begin the process of reviewing applications for the fund in October. People will be considered eligible based on length of service with Beef Products Inc, unemployment duration, and the impact loss of work had for the individual.
Corporate administrator Rich Jochum added in a statement: “The effects of the ABC News campaign were felt by more than just our employees and certainly continue on through today as we continue to operate only one of the four production facilities.
“Only after we are able to re-establish markets and re-open the other plants will cattle producers, consumers and others that relied upon our production to add value to their communities be able to recover.”
