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Tyson Foods Pares Down Managers In Efficiency Move

Meat processor will cut less than 200 managerial positions in North America to allow the company to be more flexible and make decisions faster.

SPRINGDALE, Ark. (AP) — Tyson Foods Inc. is laying off managers at facilities across North America as part of a move to operate more efficiently, a company spokesman said Thursday.
 
Gary Mickelson, a spokesman for the world's largest meat processor, said less than 200 jobs would be cut to allow the company to be more flexible and make decisions faster. Mickelson said half of those positions will be cut from operations located in northwest Arkansas.
 
He said the layoffs are fewer than those carried out in the summer of 2006, when 850 positions were eliminated. Half of those posts were vacant.
 
Tyson employs about 104,000 workers in the U.S. and abroad.
 
Most people losing their jobs are being notified this week, he said. The managers will be able to apply for open jobs within the company. Those laid off will be eligible for severance pay and outplacement assistance.
 
No hourly workers at Tyson's meat plants are being let go, Mickelson said.
 
''Most (of the changes) do not involve a loss of jobs. Unfortunately, some of them do,'' he said.
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