Cargill ends contract with meatpacking cleaning service that illegally hired minors

Cargill, one of the nation's largest beef producers, has cut ties with a Wisconsin-based janitorial service that employed underage workers in violation of federal labor law.

Minnetonka-based Cargill is ending its contract with Packers Sanitation Services (PSSI), which currently cleans 14 of its plants.

It's the latest fallout from a U.S. Department of Labor investigation that revealed widespread violations of national child labor laws at meatpacking plants in the Midwest. So far, federal authorities have said more than 100 children were illegally hired by PSSI, the Kieler, Wis.-based company hired by meat processors to clean their facilities.

The federal investigation initially revealed three sites — including the JBS pork packing house in Worthington and the Turkey Valley plant in Marshall — where they had found underage employees working hazardous jobs for PSSI.

But, in February, a settlement between the contractor and the department revealed PSSI had illegally hired minors to clean several more slaughterhouses across the country, including two Cargill-owned facilities in Kansas and Texas.

Claims of misconduct, Cargill noted, did not target the company's own employees, rather those of a subcontractor. But the company's human rights policy and supplier code-of-conduct forbids child labor in its supply chain. "We will not tolerate the use of underage labor within our facilities or supplier network," April Nelson, a Cargill spokeswoman, said.

Gina Swenson, vice president of marketing for PSSI, declined to comment on Cargill's decision to sever its relationship, saying the company did not comment on "individual customer matters."

Related to the government's investigation of its hiring practices, Swenson said the company has employed the federal government's E-Verify system for new hires, saying the only work-around to this system would be through "deliberate" identify fraud.

Many of the children hired to clean animal blood and body parts from killing and cutting floors of slaughterhouses, often overnight, were Spanish-speaking migrants.

In one instance, a child as young as 13 was burned by chemicals.

Cargill's move comes as federal and state authorities ramp up scrutiny of meat processors in the wake of the federal investigation.

Last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote to the nation's 18 largest meat processors to urge them to comply with hiring standards under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibits hiring youth to work jobs deemed hazardous under federal regulations, including cleaning and operating slaughterhouses.

"In the last fiscal year, the [DOL] found 835 companies it investigated had employed more than 3,800 children," said Vilsack. He called on companies to root out illegal child labor in supply lines.

Last year, PSSI reported about 17,000 employees at over 400 locations. The company maintains it had system-wide stricture against hiring minors.

But other companies are also taking stock of their relationship with PSSI.

Smithfield Foods operates a large facility in Sioux Falls, S.D. and said in an email that PSSI cleans about one-third of Smithfield's 45 processing facilities. Company Vice President Jim Monroe said Smithfield is "evaluating options" on the PSSI contract.

JBS terminated its PSSI contract in Worthington, Minn. Last week, it also ended its contract with PSSI to clean a JBS-owned Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant in Cold Spring.

Les Goff, general manager at Marshall-based Turkey Valley Farms, said the company retains its contract with PSSI. The processor updated its contract with PSSI to provide Turkey Valley officials more oversight.

"PSSI has not discovered any underage people since the incident involving the Department of Labor," Goff said in an email.

Tony Downs Foods, a protein processor and frozen foods packer with facilities in St. James and Madelia in southern Minnesota, said the company has implemented new safeguards and hired a former FBI agent to lead a supervisory training.

Last month, state labor authorities sought an injunction against Tony Downs after an overnight investigation revealed the company was illegally employing teenagers, including a 13-year-old, in an overnight shift.

"Tony Downs Foods does not, and did not, knowingly hire workers who are under 18 years of age," said David Ross, vice president of human resources with Tony Downs Foods.

Austin, Minn.-based Hormel did not respond to multiple email requests for comment for this story. Similarly, a voicemail seeking comment to Nate Jansen, the CEO of Quality Pork Processors, also in Austin, was not returned by deadline.

Decades ago, many slaughterhouses operated their own cleaning services. But recent trends have seen more of these operations outsourced to subcontractors, often promising to do the job without a unionized workforce for a lower cost than an in-house staff. Experts note that these subcontractors can also absorb legal liability when violations occur.

"It's a risk management tool," said Rand Park, a senior lecturer at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "It doesn't mean you are absolved of responsibility. But there is a shifting of responsibility toward the primary decision maker."

Park compared the recent flurry of news reports and governmental oversight to the magnification of the attention around so-called "conflict mines" in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which drew worldwide oversight to labor abuses. With the rising influx of immigrants, particularly youth, to the U.S., many of whom are seeking money to remit to families or debtors, Park said the risk of violation of labor norms is higher.

"Absent a command response from the government," Park said, the labor market isn't likely to "correct itself."

Cargill has in recent years faced accusations that other supply lines — namely cocoa — have involved children. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by former child slaves from Mali that accused both Cargill and Nestle of relying on child labor for cocoa harvesting in Africa.

In a January interview, Pilar Cruz, Cargill's chief sustainability officer, said the company values human rights, noting a "clear policy" and annual trainings to comply with respective labor laws.

"I would say we sleep well at night," said Cruz. "We know we treat people at this company with dignity and respect."

Cargill, like other processors, says it maintains a zero-tolerance policy against minors working in its plants or on hazardous supply lines. Details from court documents in Nebraska reveal how minors employed by PSSI often obtained fraudulent identification documents to skirt hiring systems.

The latest scrutiny of the meat industry comes as a New York Times investigation reveals internal disputes within the Biden Administration on how to properly handle the influx of migrants — many youth.

According to Vilsack's letter, the Labor Department has seen nearly a 70% increase in child labor since 2018.