You'd probably be hard-pressed to find an American kid who says they dream of working at a slaughterhouse when they grow up, but a new meatpacking plant in Nebraska could actually change that. The Wall Street Journal reports that Sustainable Beef, a $400 million facility in North Platte, is offering clean working conditions, $22-an-hour starting pay, and daytime shifts in an effort to attract locals to an industry in which more than half the front-line workforce is typically foreign-born. Its hiring pitch: "This isn't the same old meatpacking plant!"
The plant, which is the size of 10 football fields and backed in part by Walmart, is designed to process 1,500 head of cattle a day and plans to hire 850 workers by the end of 2025. It boasts gleaming stainless-steel equipment, AI-assisted efficiency tools, ergonomic workstations, and even upgraded bathrooms—amenities intended to remove some of the stigma surrounding meatpacking. And while many white, native-born workers in North Platte are showing up to apply, most still shy away from the more dangerous production-line jobs that require knife work and speed. Instead, those front-line roles continue to draw newly arrived Hispanic workers, many with prior experience in similar plants.
Some residents have expressed unease about a potential demographic shift, but others see the influx of immigrants and the participation of locals as a necessary mix to make the plant viable. If the plant succeeds, officials estimate another 1,200 ancillary jobs could follow in trucking and food services. That remains a big "if," but current employees seem to be sold on the situation. Forklift driver Keenan Taylor says, "All of these locals that want to complain, 'Oh, it's all going to be Mexicans,' I have no nice words to say other than stop being lazy, go get your hands dirty, and stop saying it's somebody else's job to do." Read in full
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