Tyson Foods to require COVID vaccine for all US employees

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (TB&P) — Springdale-based Tyson Foods said Tuesday that it would require its U.S. workforce to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Spokesman Derek Burleson said that mandate would affect approximately 120,000 processing plant and corporate office workers. About half of them have already received the COVID vaccine.

The company’s leadership (officers and above) must be vaccinated by Sept. 24. Employees working in an office have until Oct. 1 to receive the vaccine. All other U.S. employees are required to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1, subject to ongoing discussions with locations represented by unions. Frontline workers will receive a $200 bonus once they are vaccinated, the company said.

According to a company news release, Tyson Foods is the largest U.S. food company to require COVID vaccinations for its entire workforce.

“Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the single most effective thing we can do to protect our team members, their families and their communities,” Tyson Foods chief medical officer Dr. Claudia Coplein said in a statement. “With rapidly rising COVID-19 case counts of contagious, dangerous variants leading to increasing rates of severe illness and hospitalization among the U.S. unvaccinated population, this is the right time to take the next step to ensure a fully vaccinated workforce.”

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