This story was produced in partnership with Facing South, the online magazine of the Institute for Southern Studies.
Employees at a Tyson Foods poultry processing plant in Van Buren went on strike for a week last month, claiming the business was mishandling their severance and endangering their health and safety — and is now “throwing the heroes away” after lauding their work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Olivia Paschal, the archives editor with Facing South and a doctoral student in history at the University of Virginia, contributed to this report. Matthew Moore helped edit this piece.