Hundreds of families may be forced to pack up and leave the town of 11,000, heading east to Omaha or Iowa<\/a>, or south to the meatpacking towns of Kansas or beyond<\/a>, causing spinoff layoffs in Lexington\u2019s restaurants, barbershops, grocers, convenience stores and taco trucks.<\/p>\n A pall is hanging over the holiday season in Lexington, Nebraska, where the Tyson beef plant, by far the largest employer in small town, is set to lay off 3,200 people when the company closes the facility on Jan. 20, after three decades of operation. (AP Video: Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n \u201cLosing 3,000 jobs in a city of 10,000 to 12,000 people is as big a closing event as we\u2019ve seen virtually for decades,\u201d said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Indiana\u2019s Ball State University. It will be \u201cclose to the poster child for hard times.\u201d<\/p>\n All told, the job losses are expected to reach 7,000, largely in Lexington and the surrounding counties, according to estimates from University of Nebraska, Lincoln, shared with The Associated Press. Tyson employees alone will lose an estimated $241 million in pay and benefits annually.<\/p>\n Tyson says it\u2019s closing the plant to \u201cright-size\u201d its beef business after a historically low cattle<\/a> herd in the U.S. and the company\u2019s expected loss of $600 million on beef production<\/a> next fiscal year.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Amela Lipnicevic with the Nebraska Department of Labor, right, helps Tyson Foods employee Guillermo Vargas during an informational meeting in Lexington, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Amela Lipnicevic with the Nebraska Department of Labor, right, helps Tyson Foods employee Guillermo Vargas during an informational meeting in Lexington, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The plant\u2019s closure threatens to unravel a Great Plains town where the American Dream was still attainable, where immigrants who didn\u2019t speak English and never graduated high school bought homes, raised children in a safe community and sent them to college.<\/p>\n Now, those symbols of economic progress \u2014 mortgages and car payments, property taxes and tuition costs \u2014 are bills that thousands of Tyson workers won\u2019t have an income to pay. <\/p>\n At St. Ann\u2019s church, Gutierrez sat between her daughters and recalled being told of the plant closure just before Thanksgiving while she visited a college campus with her high school senior, Kimberly.<\/p>\n \u201cAt that moment, my daughter said she no longer wanted to study,\u201d Gutierrez said. \u201cBecause where would we get the money to pay for college?\u201d<\/p>\n A tear slipped down Kimberly\u2019s cheek as she looked at her mother and then down at her hands. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Two men walk past a business in downtown Lexington, Neb., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Two men walk past a business in downtown Lexington, Neb., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u2018Tyson was our motherland\u2019<\/p>\n If you threw a dart at a map of the United States, Lexington \u2014 called \u201cLex\u201d by locals \u2014 would be just about bullseye.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to miss driving down Interstate 80, half hidden by barren hackberry trees, corn fields and pastures of Black Angus cattle, but a driver can spy the plant\u2019s hulking industrial buildings pumping steam.<\/p>\n The plant opened in 1990 and was bought by Tyson 11 years later, attracting thousands of workers and nearly doubling the town\u2019s population within a decade. <\/p>\n Many came from Los Angeles, then stricken by recession, including Lizeth Yanes, who initially hated what she called \u201ca little ghost town.\u201d<\/p>\n But soon Lexington flourished, with suburbs sprouting among bur oak and American elm trees. The downtown, a strip of cobblestone streets and brick buildings, has a Somali grocer that abuts a Hispanic bakery; locals attend over a dozen churches and several city recreation centers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tyson Foods employee Lizeth Yanes cries during an interview in Lexington, Neb., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Tyson Foods employee Lizeth Yanes cries during an interview in Lexington, Neb., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n To this day, the plant creates the town\u2019s rhythm as workers roll on and off the daily A, B and C shifts and fill restaurants, school pickup lines and the one-screen movie theater showing \u201cPolar Express.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt took a long time for me to actually enjoy this little place,\u201d said Yanes. \u201cNow that I enjoy it, now I have to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n The atmosphere inside the Tyson plant, where workers process as many as 5,000 head of cattle a day, laboring on slaughter floors, cleaning crews or trimming cuts of meat, feels \u201clike a funeral,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cTyson was our motherland,\u201d said plant worker Arab Adan. The Kenyan immigrant sat in his car with his two energetic sons, who asked him a question he has no answer to: \u201cWhich state are we gonna go, daddy?\u201d<\/p>\n The only thing Adan is set on is that his kids finish the school year in Lexington, where school officials say nearly half of students have a parent working for Tyson.<\/p>\n The school district, where at least 20 languages and dialects are spoken, has higher high school graduation and college attendance rates than the state and national average, and one of Nebraska\u2019s biggest marching bands. Residents are proud of the diversity and the tightknit community, where young people return to raise families.<\/p>\n During Mass at St. Ann\u2019s, parishioners gave the cash in their pockets to a fund for families in financial need, despite knowing they\u2019ll be out of work next month. Afterward, Francisco Antonio ran through his future employment options with a sad smile.<\/p>\n After the plant closes on Jan. 20, the 52-year-old father of four said he\u2019ll stay a few months in Lexington and look for work, though \u201cnow there\u2019s no future.\u201d He took off his glasses, paused, apologized and tried to explain his emotions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s home mostly, not the job,\u201d he said, replacing his glasses with an embarrassed smile.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need another opportunity, job, here in Lex,\u201d he said. \u201cOtherwise Lex is gonna disappear.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tyson Foods employees wait for help at an informational meeting held by the Nebraska Department of Labor in Lexington, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Tyson Foods employees wait for help at an informational meeting held by the Nebraska Department of Labor in Lexington, Neb., Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo\/Thomas Peipert)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n \u2018Tyson owes this community\u2019<\/p>\n The domino effect could go something like this: If 1,000 families skip town, said economist Hicks \u2014 who wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it were double that \u2014 seats would be left empty in schools, leading to teacher layoffs; there would be far fewer customers in restaurants, shops and other businesses.<\/p>\n Most of the customers at Los Jalapenos, a Mexican restaurant down the street from the plant, are Tyson workers. They fill booths after work and are greeted by owner Armando Martinez\u2019s mustachioed grin and bellow of \u201cHola, amigo!\u201d<\/p>\n Martinez\u2019s grandson once told his grandfather that when he grows up he wants to work at Tyson. The child\u2019s fifth-grade sister recently gathered with classmates to talk about the changes happening with their parents. Some were headed to California, others to Kansas. All were in tears.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n