Tyson Foods Inc. will lay off about 190 workers, or one-fourth of the workforce, at its Hanover County poultry processing plant this June, the Times-Dispatch has reported. "The company is adding equipment and eliminating deboning jobs," said Gary Mickelson, spokesman for Arkansas-based Tyson by way of explanation.

The production workers to be laid off earn in the range of $8.75 to $11.15 an hour. They will be paid for 60 days from yesterday, or roughly a month beyond their last day of work. They will receive no other severance pay but will be encouraged to apply for open jobs at other Tyson plants, Mickelson said.

Of course, that last offer may not be as good as it sounds, even if workers are willing to relocate from the Richmond region to take a job paying a couple dollars an hour over minimum wage. The poultry king has been laying off workers at other operations around the country. Last month, Tysons announced 100 layoffs at its plant in York, Neb., where, the company stated, "workers will be given the opportunity to transfer to other Tyson locations."

In February, the company estimated it would lay off another 200 to 300 employees in Emporia, Kan., as part of a restructuring of the beef slaughtering operation there. As the company announced then, "Virtually all of the Emporia workers who have been displaced are being given the opportunity to work at one of the company's other facilities."