Top Meatpackers Including JBS, Tyson Hit With Wage-Fixing Claims

Affiliates of JBS SA, Tyson Foods Inc., Hormel Foods Corp., and other leading meatpackers are facing federal antitrust litigation over an alleged industrywide scheme to hold down the wages of employees.

The 128-page lawsuit targets more than a dozen companies that allegedly control 80% of the US red med market. It accuses them of conspiring to drive down the pay of workers at their beef- and pork-processing plants through employee no-poach pacts, “highly regimented” wage schedules, and illegal exchanges of compensation data.

The companies traded sensitive information at secret meetings, through sham surveys overseen by a “compensation ...