18 labor lawsuits against Tyson Foods to be heard in Georgia
The Cochran Firm, with office locations nationwide
9/1/2007, 3:03 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) - Pre-trial proceedings in 18 labor lawsuits against Tyson Foods Inc. will be heard in the same federal court in Georgia, a federal judicial panel has ruled.
The Springdale-based company, the largest meat processor in the world, is defending itself against accusations that workers weren't paid for the time they spent changing into or out of protective clothing or walking to their work stations.
Tyson spokesman Gary Mickelson said the company was pleased with the August decision of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation to grant Tyson's request to consolidate the lawsuits.
"It means the early stages of these cases, including motions and discovery, will be handled by one court, which we believe is a more efficient way of proceeding," Mickelson said in an e-mail to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Attorneys familiar with the cases say the litigation could be decentralized and the cases sent back to where they were originally filed after all the parties exchange information in Georgia.
In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court said Tyson-owned IBP Inc. in South Dakota must compensate workers for changing clothes and walking to work stations, a ruling that prompted class-action lawsuits against Tyson and other U.S. meat processors.
The 18 lawsuits, filed in 10 federal district courts across the United States, allege the meat companies violated federal labor law on overtime pay, minimum wage and record-keeping.
The suits were filed in district courts in Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
All 18 will be consolidated in district court in the Middle District of Georgia, and U.S. District Judge Clay D. Land will hear pretrial proceedings in the cases.
Robert Camp of The Cochran Firm in Birmingham, Ala., who represents more than 1,000 clients in a suit against Tyson, said it could work to the plaintiffs' advantage also to all be heard in one court.
"The advantage would be that we can conduct discovery across the board in one forum, and so it will be easy to see the internal operations of Tyson," Camp said.
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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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