SD: BPI workers apply for relief

Having never administered a relief fund before, Dakota Dunes, SD-based Beef Products Inc. officials weren’t sure what to expect when they announced that $10 million would be distributed to workers affected by layoffs in 2012. When the application deadline passed on Nov. 18, BPI had received 700 applications for relief from former workers at four locations, according to a report in Iowa’s Sioux City Journal. “We are very, very pleased with the response. It certainly has exceeded our expectations,” said Rich Jochum, BPI corporate administrator and general counsel. The Dakota Dunes-based meat processor began taking applications last month for payouts from the fund the company established from the settlement of its defamation lawsuit against ABC News this summer over its news reports regarding lean finely-textured beef, also known as LFTB, a beef product blended with ground beef to reduce its fat content which the news reports repeatedly referred as “pink slime.” Jochum said applications will be reviewed and an award amount determined based on criteria such as length of service at BPI, unemployment or other benefits received and help received from other sources, such as churches or support groups. The goal, he said, is to distribute the money by the end of the year. BPI laid off about 750 workers and closed production facilities in Waterloo, IA, Amarillo, TX, and Garden City, KS, and reduced staff at the company’s lone remaining production facility in South Sioux City and its corporate offices in Dakota Dunes after sales of its LFTB dropped in the wake the ABC News reports in 2012.