Many workers displaced by slaughterhouse closure remain in Windom, awaiting opportunity

WINDOM, MINN. — By 5:30 p.m., Kristi Maricle's classroom is full with former workers from the shuttered hog slaughterhouse. On the smartboard reads an unfinished sentence.

"So, Rosa, what does the whole sentence say?" Maricle said.

There's murmuring in the rows. Some are in coats. One young man wears headphones. Kids color in the back.

"We win the game," said Rosa Rodriguez, who sits next to her husband, Jose, wearing a black baseball cap with the Mexican flag.

"That's right," Maricle said. "We win the game."

Eight months ago, the last shift ended at HyLife Windom, the pork plant in town, as workers removed helmets and walked out to the parking lot. The plant still stands and has a new owner, but it hasn't reopened.

Many in town are still working through the aftershocks, from unpaid bills to job uncertainty.

Pausing while taking a test, former plant worker Monica said she's been jolted by the plant's closure. Her unemployment insurance has run out, and she says she's owed money by HyLife. She also feels a rift in town.

"I don't see how [the community is] supporting us," Monica said. "I'm waiting for the plant to open."

Across the highway, Nate Vortherms stands in his welding shop, talking about the money HyLife owes him. He's filed a claim for over $40,000 with a court in Delaware processing HyLife's bankruptcy, but he doesn't expect to see any money.

"They'd call me at 11 o'clock at night and I'd work all the way through the night, just to keep the plant going," Vortherms said.

Like an uprooted tree, the roots of the Windom's meatpacking plant — especially for farmers and workers — became visible last June. More than 1,000 people lost their job. A South Dakota company bought 22,000 hogs for $1.3 million, purchasing HyLife's loose ends as it hastily closed down.

A judge has approved a sale of the plant in the bankruptcy case, including $7 million so far in legal fees for attorneys and accountants. But a hearing to resolve claims for the unsecured creditors — over $100 million in claims — was pushed to late February.

Last May, the Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz passed an emergency aid package of $14 million to help pay off city sewer and housing projects. The city has received money, but the housing complex sits unfinished on a hill.

The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry has opened up a claim in the bankruptcy proceeding, seeking $41,000 in backpay to HyLife workers.

Last summer, Premium Iowa Pork purchased the plant in a fire sale. A spokeswoman said the company still looks forward to announcing an opening date soon.

At the hardware store, clerk Trina Booze wears a red smock and shakes her head.

"Have you seen the housing complex?" Booze said.

Booze said the town's property taxes went up when the city updated the sanitation system to accommodate HyLife. When her neighbor, a HyLife worker, moved his belongings on his lawn preparing to move after the plant closed, she said she gave him $350 to help him out.

"I can't believe what they did to those workers," Booze said.

The pace in town remains largely the same as before HyLife's closure. Two restaurants closed, both downtown. But the Subway is expanding. Rumors swirl in town that the new plant won't be a kill plant and will hire fewer workers. A spokeswoman said the company will announce more about its plans at the end of the first financial quarter.

Rodriguez's husband, Jose, worked for the plant for a dozen years, first with a beef slaughterhouse and then HyLife. He and Rosa, immigrants from Mexico, have three children and a mortgage.

"We're established here," Jose said. "It would be difficult to leave."

While many workers left — some taking jobs in Michigan or going back to Guanajuato, Mexico, — many HyLife workers stayed. Included in the Legislature's bailout to Windom was funding for the schools, given the anticipated loss of students this fall. But a major loss didn't materialize.

"We're only down a handful of students from January last year to this year," Dustin Stevens, a Windom Area school board member, told the Star Tribune on Jan. 5. "They [state education officials] have not provided us a dime yet."

Over a week later, after a status request on the check from the Star Tribune, the Minnesota Department of Education sent a check for $160,000 to Windom schools, recognizing a decline of 16 students at the start of the fall term.

Over half the plant's workers held agricultural visas. Some have secured residency in the U.S. under deferred action as DLI's wage theft investigation plays out.

In the back row of Maricle's community education adult literacy class, Pilar bounces her 5-month-old daughter, Adhara, on her lap. Pilar worked at HyLife in quality inspection and wonders if she'll take a job there when the plant reopens.

"I guess it all depends on the amount of money and whether it makes sense," Pilar said. "It would be closer to my daughter and not [challenging in] the weather."

In the classroom, Maricle teaches two hours a night on Tuesday and Thursday, following full days as a fifth-grade teacher. She took the job last year because she knew the enthusiasm for learning she saw in the children of the immigrant parents.

"They're coming here to make a better life for them and their families," Maricle said.

After 6 p.m., iPads are passed out for students to play a grammar game.

In the back row, a child with a blue-and-gold Windom Eagles basketball jersey sits next to her mother, helping her select the right verb.

"They laugh or they laughs?" Maricle said.

The students respond, "Laugh."

Another student smiles at Pilar's baby, still perched on her mom's knee, as she reaches out to give Adhara a small pinch on the cheek.