Tyson Foods sees a protest at its headquarters over child labor rules

The headquarters of Tyson Foods (NYSE:TSN) in Springdale, Arkansas was the site on Monday of a protest of workers and activists over the industry’s use of child labor. The protest included members from the Venceremos advocacy group and Food Chain Workers Alliance. Both groups are pushing for improved working conditions in processing plants.

Although Tyson Foods (TSN) has a policy against employing children, the meat processing company has been accused of not speaking out against a new Arkansas law passed in the spring to roll back protections for teen workers. In particular, the new law does away with the requirement for 14-year old and 15-year old employees to secure a work permit before taking a job. The issue is said to be of a concern with Tyson Foods (TSN) because it is accused of using suppliers that employs teenage boys from places such as Guatemala.

Earlier in the year, the Department of Labor said a major food safety sanitation company paid $1.5M in penalties for employing more than 100 teenagers at meatpacking plants, including two Tyson Foods (TSN) facilities in Arkansas and Tennessee.

Shares of Tyson Foods (TSN) are down more than 12% over the last six weeks and trade very close to their 52-week low of $46.16. The company is not expected to release its Q3 earnings report until the middle part of November, but 7 of the last 8 EPS revisions from analyst for that quarter have been to the downward side.