Residents of Lexington, Nebraska, are feeling devastated this Christmas. The town’s biggest employer revealed it will shut down early next year, triggering fear and economic uncertainty across the community. Via WTF Detective:
MS NOW reported Friday from Lexington — the county seat of Dawson County, Nebraska, a place Trump carried easily with more than 74 percent of the vote last year. Tyson, the meatpacking giant that employs about 3,200 workers in the town, will leave all of them without jobs when the facility closes on Jan. 20.
“Have you ever been in a place where you can just feel the pain and the anxiety? That’s what it feels like being here in Lexington, Nebraska,” MS NOW reporter Rosa Flores said. “… People have described to me what’s happening here by using the words ‘catastrophe,’ ‘crisis,’ the feeling of being ‘collateral damage,’ ‘hurt,’ ‘anxiety,’ ‘agony.’”
“There’s another business here to my left, down the street. That woman says that people have gone into her store sobbing,” Flores said. “Her sales immediately dropped 10 to 20 percent right after the announcement.”
Earlier this month, Reuters reported that Tyson decided to close the Lexington facility as cattle supplies are expected to fall to a 75-year low in 2025. Limited cattle availability drives up production costs for beef products like hamburgers and steaks, while prolonged drought has shrunk grazing land and reduced herd sizes for ranchers.
