Meat workers are being laid off

NEW YORK (UPI) — U.S. meatpackers are starting to lay off workers as a ban on U.S. beef exports resulting from mad cow disease enters its third week.

The Dec. 22 announcement of the first case of mad cow disease in the United States has prompted more than 50 U.S. trading partners to impose full or partial bans on imports of its beef, crippling a $3 billion annual market for meatpackers, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday.

Cargill Inc., the Minneapolis commodity processing giant, said Friday its Excel meatpacking unit laid off about 700 workers at five cattle-slaughtering houses, or about 7 percent of the employees. The plants are located in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado and Texas.

Swift & Co., of Greeley, Colo., said it furloughed about 270 people at its beef plants. Tyson Foods Inc., the Springdale, Ark., meat giant, said it has furloughed about 40 people and has reassigned an undisclosed number.

Meanwhile, the United States scheduled more cow killings, with another 129 scheduled to be put down this week.