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Workers At Cargill Plant Due More Benefits

The U.S. Labor Department has approved a union petition for extended unemployment and other benefits for workers of a shuttered West Texas meatpacking plant.

PLAINVIEW, Texas (AP) -- The U.S. Labor Department has approved a union petition for extended unemployment and other benefits for workers of a shuttered West Texas meatpacking plant.

Cargill closed its beef-processing plant in Plainview in February 2013 because of drought-related reductions in cattle supplies. The United Food and Commercial Workers union filed for extended benefits for the 2,000 workers left out of work by the shutdown.

A union statement Thursday says those benefits have been approved, along with job retraining and other federal programs. The first deadline for applying for those benefits is May 30, and the union has mailed instructions for how laid-off workers should proceed.

Plainview is about 45 miles north of Lubbock.

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