The Department of Justice said Monday it has filed a lawsuit accusing poultry processors Sanderson Farms (SAFM), Cargill Meat Solutions and Wayne Farms, as well as data consulting firm Webber Meng Sahl and its president, G. Jonathan Meng, of engaging in “a long-running conspiracy to exchange information about wages and benefits for poultry processing plant workers” and violations of the Sherman Act.
According to the civil antitrust suit filed in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms allegedly also violated the Packers and Stockyards Act by pitting chicken growers against each other to determine their compensation.
The companies would be required, among other things, to pay $84.8 million collectively in restitution for poultry processing plant workers who were affected by the information exchange conspiracy, the DOJ said.
“Through a brazen scheme to exchange wage and benefit information, these poultry processors stifled competition and harmed a generation of plant workers who face demanding and sometimes dangerous conditions to earn a living,” said Doha Mekki, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
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