Corporate Welfare: The Empire Of The Pigs

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In Oklahoma, it was starting to seem like deja vu all over again. The $21 million that state and local governments put up to bring Seaboard to the Panhandle was just the start. Guymon, like Albert Lea, couldn't supply the work force required by Seaboard. In time the company would need workers by the thousands. That's because the turnover rate in all processing plants runs close to 100% a year owing to the low wages. This slaughterhouse, one of the world's largest, will eventually kill an average of eight hogs a minute, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year--more than 4 million annually. So Seaboard repeated the Albert Lea hiring process--it attracted immigrant workers, some Laotian and Vietnamese, but most from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and other Central and South American countries. Some turned out to be illegal immigrants.

Just getting there was no easy feat, since Guymon, which calls itself "An American Original," is located in a less than convenient spot--320 miles east of Santa Fe, N.M., 335 miles west of Tulsa, 125 miles north of Amarillo, Texas, and 500 miles from the Mexican border. The nearest bus stops are in Liberal, Kans., 40 miles to the north, and Stratford, Texas, 40 miles to the south. As was the case in Albert Lea, the freshly arrived immigrants had no place to stay, and the town that had never had a homeless shelter was forced to open one. Volunteers cleaned, repaired and painted a vacant motel. Unemployed individuals and families could stay up to one week at a cost of $10 a day, which included two meals. If they found work--largely at Seaboard--they could stay up to 90 days while they saved money for a permanent home.

Simultaneously, the state began training Seaboard workers even before the plant opened. Curriculums were provided in English, Spanish, Laotian and Vietnamese. In all, 3,300 Seaboard workers received training. The cost to taxpayers: $617,168.

Other costs began to pop up. By 1997 the Guymon schools bulged with new students. All grades exceeded the state-mandated teacher-pupil ratio. And enrollment is expected to jump one-third by the year 2000. Adding to the turmoil of overcrowding was the confusion about language. The district was compelled to add English-as-a-second-language classes. This year about 450 students, or 21%, were judged to have limited proficiency in English.

Some parents began to complain that their children were getting no education at all. But when the school district proposed $1.6 million in bond issues for new classrooms, equipment and buses, voters said no. The reason? A general anger directed at the huge hog farms. And a belief that Seaboard Corp. was not paying its way. Which, of course, it was not.

In 1997 the Oklahoma legislature agreed to spend $700 million on state roads and bridges. Of that figure, Guymon's and Texas County's share amounted to $37.3 million. That worked out to a per capita highway spending in Texas County of $2,200--or some 10 times what was earmarked for the rest of the state. Needless to say, most of the roadwork benefited Seaboard.

In addition, $47 million--a disproportionate amount--of the state's five-year capital-improvement program was set aside for Texas County for highway work to accommodate Seaboard truck convoys, which in time would haul 10,000 hogs a day into Guymon from all directions.