The Wisconsin company recently disciplined by federal officials for hiring children to clean slaughterhouses is losing another contract at a Minnesota processing plant.
Slaughterhouse cleaning company that illegally hired minors loses JBS contract in Cold Spring, Minn.
All PSSI workers hired to clean at the JBS-owned Pilgrim's Pride poultry processing plant will be laid off. The same company lost its contract with JBS in Worthington this winter.
April 10, 2023 at 9:09PM
Packers Sanitation Services Inc. (PSSI), a food service janitorial service based in Kieler, Wis., alerted the Minnesota Employment and Economic Development office that it will lay off 81 workers who clean a poultry processing center in Cold Spring, Minn., after its 19-year contract was suddenly severed.
Brazilian-based meat packer JBS PP, which owns Pilgrim's Pride, had terminated its relationship with PSSI in Cold Spring.
It's the latest fallout from a U.S. Department of Labor investigation last year that discovered PSSI employed more than 100 minors at meatpacking plants across the Midwest. In January, JBS severed its contract with PSSI at its plant in Worthington, Minn., where several underage workers had been hired by PSSI.
In a letter to DEED on Monday, PSSI Vice President Tom Glackin said that JBS had found another sanitation company to continue cleaning the JBS site in Cold Spring.
"Recently, we received unforeseen notice from JBS PP - Cold Spring that it has decided to contract the JBS PP - Cold Spring location," said Glackin, "meaning that PSSI will cease services at this plant effective May 30, 2023."
A company spokesperson confirmed that a cleaning contract at Pilgrim's Pride in Cold Spring would end by June, calling the announcement "disappointing news for the local team and for PSSI."
The spokesperson said the Labor Department did not allege any violations at the Cold Spring site.
The announcement comes two months after the Labor Department fined PSSI $1.5 million for violating federal labor laws by hiring minors to clean packing plants around the country, including in Minnesota. Cleaning slaughterhouses is considered hazardous under labor law, which bars those younger than 18 years of age from holding such jobs.
PSSI did not immediately answer an email seeking comment.
The DEED announcement did not specify why JBS terminated its contact with PSSI. A letter from Glackin to employees ascribed the layoffs to unforeseen business circumstances related to JBS and, furthermore, "not something that we anticipated."
According to Glackin's letter, PSSI had cleaned at the Cold Spring facility since 2004.
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