Gary Mickelson Quotations

We're hopeful this unfortunate matter can be quickly resolved so we can continue rebuilding our export business in Japan. Our shipments to Japan have been steady since the market reopened. However, as expected, volumes have been limited because of Japan's import restrictions.

We're hopeful there will be sufficient law enforcement support to allow this to happen. A bus carrying some management workers was prevented from entering the plant earlier this morning. In fact, picketers blocked the entrance and broke out some of the windows on the bus.

The products are expected to complement the traditional offering in the retail meat case and also meet the demands of the natural foods retailer.

legal obligation to do their job and are not part of this dispute.

Most Tyson plants are running regular shifts today, although there have been reports of higher than usual absenteeism at some locations. Virtually all of the company's poultry plants and a majority of our beef and pork plants are in operation today.

There is no affect to area pork producers in the slightest way. The demand for pork from local farmers is still as high as ever.

We support our Team Members' right to express themselves on this important matter. We are telling them, if they take part in a rally Monday, and their plant is scheduled to operate, we hope they will not take any unauthorized time off but will instead get pre-approval from their supervisor to participate during non-work hours.

We support comprehensive immigration reform including a solution that provides better control over our borders and more effective tools to help companies verify the documents of the people they hire. We also support a guest worker program and a process for undocumented workers already in the U.S. to be able to earn permanent legal status.

Such a practice is not consistent with our position on animal welfare, which calls on contract poultry producers to serve as stewards of the birds they raise for our company.

Some of our plants are not scheduled to operate Monday, due to multiple reasons including market conditions and the planned immigration rally.

It does not currently help us in cases of identity fraud when an individual assumes someone else's name by using their Social Security number. We believe companies should not be placed in the role of policing who has proper work documentation.

Most of our plants will likely be in operation on Monday ... to meet the needs of our customers. A small percentage may not operate because of factors such as market conditions that permit scheduling changes and the potential shortage of workers.

While we understand the sentiment behind the May 1 events and support comprehensive immigration reform, we are not encouraging workers to participate in the rallies. We are asking workers not to take any unauthorized time off and instead seek pre-approval from their supervisor or participate during non-work hours. We don't want our (employees) to jeopardize their good employment records and incomes by taking unauthorized time away from work.

We believe there's evidence that a few unionized inspectors are expressing support for the UFCW local 401 by staying away from the plant to keep it from operating.

We have more than 1,000 of our team members who turned out this morning to work at the plant, ... They met at a staging area and that number far exceeds the 200 people on the picket line.

We're still trying to gain a better understanding of what happened.

We were successful in getting more than 700 of our people into the plant, and we have had production at the plant,

We believe companies should not be placed in the role of policing who has proper work documentation.

We question whether the unionized inspectors' alleged safety concerns are genuine,

There have been reports of higher-than-usual absenteeism at some locations.

We at Tyson support comprehensive immigration reform and support our Team Members' right to express themselves on this important matter.

We seek trademarks and patents to protect the development and use of brand names, product formulas and various operational technology.

We temporarily withdrew the line last year. We were trying to blend this product line into our regular operations and found it to be too inefficient. We're now evaluating whether we want to establish dedicated operations to service this market.

We think it's best for everyone involved . . . if these restrictions are adhered to and are followed so we can operate safely and those who are on strike can picket safely.

We do not tolerate discrimination in the workplace.

There's a fine line employers must walk between asking for enough information to verify the documents of a newly hired worker and asking for too much.

Because the trial has begun the judge has asked both sides to refrain from making any public comments about the case at this time.

However, it remains premature for us to make additional comment, especially since ConAgra has not yet issued any formal information detailing what is for sale.