Migrant workers at Delta egg plant decry abrupt loss of jobs; advocates defend labor force

DELTA — The woman standing under the shelter at Delta City Park, originally from Peru, told a familiar story.

She and many of her co-workers at the Delta Egg Farm came to the United States, like many immigrants, in search of a brighter future — “a better life for our families.”

There she was late Wednesday afternoon, though, suddenly out of work after two years at the egg farm, her future uncertain.

“All of us here were fired. They haven’t told us anything,” said the woman, who doesn’t have authorization to work in the United States and wouldn’t give her name. “We want them to give us our jobs back and give us an explanation why they got rid of us this way.”

Officials from El Gallinero, a Delta labor contracting firm, said 150 to 200 workers it supplied to Delta Egg Farm have been let go or were to be let go this week and they, along with many of the displaced workers, demonstrated against the sudden and unexpected move on Wednesday.

“They herded us out like animals,” said another former worker, also Peruvian and also unwilling to give his name.

Reps from Delta Egg Farm’s parent company, Ridgeland, Mississippi-based Cal-Maine Foods, didn’t immediately respond to queries Thursday seeking comment. But the turn of events underscores the precarious position of undocumented workers, particularly as debate over illegal immigration intensifies, and their role in the U.S. workforce, especially in jobs requiring intense physical labor.

Around 50-75 people demonstrated Wednesday — laid off workers and their family members and El Gallinero reps — holding U.S. flags and signs reading, “We Feed America” and “150 Families Without Jobs” as they marched down Main Street in Delta.

Pedro Gonzalez, an El Gallinero administrator who took part in Wednesday’s demonstration, suspects many of the El Gallinero workers are undocumented, as several stated when asked about their migratory status by KSL.com. Many are from Peru, Gonzalez said, and some may be seeking asylum. However, when they present their work documents, El Gallinero officials take them at face value.

“They come with a card, we don’t ask questions. … You accept it,” he said.

Either way, he defended the Latino and immigrant workforce at Delta Egg Farm, which according to El Gallinero officials, processes perhaps 3 million eggs a day. Before El Gallinero started working with Delta Egg Farm in the late 2000s, the company had a hard time finding workers, Gonzalez said. Moreover, white, non-Hispanic employees typically last only a day, maybe a week, given the hard physical labor required at the egg facility.

Tony Yapias, an immigrant rights advocate, echoed Gonzalez, taking aim at critics who decry immigrant and undocumented labor. Yapias — focus of intense public scrutiny in 2018 when he pled guilty to two misdemeanors in connection with a 2016 encounter with a female acquaintance — traveled to Delta from Salt Lake City to take part in Wednesday’s demonstration.

“It’s hypocritical for them to question why they’re here. They’re not going to take their jobs,” Yapias said as he walked down Main Street with the demonstrators. “Anyone who questions why they are here, they should go work. How long will they last? A day, a week?”

‘It isn’t fair’

Gonzalez and Carlos Lazaro, the owner of El Gallinero, don’t know why Delta Egg Farm and Cal-Maine officials abruptly ended the relationship with El Gallinero and got rid of the employees supplied by the contractor. Cal-Maine, with numerous plants and facilities across the United States, notably in the Southeast, touts itself as the largest U.S. producer and distributor of eggs and reported $3.1 billion in sales in fiscal year 2023.

The Delta facility had avoided disease outbreaks and, as the El Gallinero officials put it, was one of the most efficient and productive Cal-Maine plants.

“The way I see it, Carlos created a table with a big feast. Now they’re telling him, move aside, we’re going to take over,” Gonzalez said. He said Lazaro, who processed the paychecks for the El Gallinero workers, “has paid more taxes in the last 18 years than probably 2,000 Americans.”

The displaced workers, too, decried the situation.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Antonio Morales, who is originally from Mexico and had worked for Delta Egg Farm and El Gallinero for 14 years. “Fourteen years, and one day to the next, they fire us. It isn’t fair.”

Another former worker, who wouldn’t give her name given her migratory status, expressed similar sentiments. “We don’t have anywhere to work. Where do we go?” she asked.

Lazaro, who spearheaded the demonstration, said he hopes the displaced employees find work and that the egg farm continues to flourish.

“The only thing I want is for you to get work,” he told the assembled crowd before the march down Main Street. “It’s not for me. It’s for you.”

Millard County Commissioner Bill Wright, contacted Thursday, said he wasn’t aware of the happenings at Delta Egg Farm, as it’s a private company. But he said agriculture, including dairy, is a big component of the county economy and migrant workers are a key element of the workforce.

Some may have “migrant visas” allowing them to work, he suspects, some may not, but it’s not the county’s role to police their migratory status.

“They kind of mind their own business, do their work,” Wright said.