Tyson Foods Lawsuit: Wage-Fixing and Chicken Price-Fixing Settlements

The Wage-Fixing Case

Tyson and other poultry processors were accused of conspiring, over roughly two decades, to suppress the wages and benefits of plant workers by secretly sharing compensation information — a labor-antitrust theory. The overall settlement across the companies reached about $398 million, one of the largest labor-antitrust settlements ever, with Tyson and an affiliate paying a combined roughly $115.5 million.

Wage-fixing among employers is illegal for the same reason price-fixing among sellers is: it distorts a market, here the market for workers’ labor.

The Chicken Price-Fixing Case

Separately, chicken producers including Tyson were accused of coordinating to raise and hold up the price of broiler chicken. Tyson agreed to pay about $99 million as part of a larger $203.35 million settlement fund for buyers who purchased raw chicken in certain states over a defined period. This is a consumer-facing settlement: people and businesses that bought chicken can claim.

So Tyson faced antitrust exposure on both sides of its business — what it paid workers and what it charged customers.

What to Know

For the chicken price-fixing settlement, eligibility depends on where and when you bought chicken, and claims run through the court-approved administrator. These cases are a reminder that antitrust harm can be diffuse — a few cents per pound or per paycheck — which is exactly why it is pursued as class litigation.