<div id="subtitle">Iowa meatpacking plant closing, eliminating 1,450 jobs at 1 of Sioux City's largest employers</div><div><p>John Morrell & Co. is closing its pork processing plant in Sioux City, eliminating all 1,450 hourly and salaried jobs at one of the city's largest employers, the company announced Wednesday.</p><p>The subsidiary of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods Inc. said the plant that employs more than 3 percent of the city's workers would close April 20.</p><p>John Morrell President Joseph B. Sebring cited the age of the plant, which was built in 1959, and the struggling economy in announcing the closure.</p><p>"The Sioux City plant is one of the oldest, most outdated and least efficient plants in the Smithfield system," Sebring said in the statement.</p><p>Sebring said although the company is constantly improving its facilities, the Sioux City plant would "require significant capital expenditures" to update.</p><p>"In this adverse business environment those capital needs simply cannot be met," he said.</p><p>The company said it will honor all production contracts at Sioux City and that Smithfield Foods has no further plans to close plants "in the foreseeable future."</p><p>Sioux City's labor force is made up of about 43,400 workers older than 16, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, meaning the John Morrell closing represents a loss of 3.3 percent of the city's workers.</p><p>Sioux City officials learned of the closing Tuesday afternoon. Economic Development Director Marty Dougherty said in a statement that Mayor Mike Hobart was contacted by John Morrell plant manager Dan Pacquin.</p><p>Dougherty did not immediately return telephone messages from The Associated Press on Wednesday.</p><p>Gov. Chet Culver called the plant closing "heartbreaking."</p><p>"My administration has been in communication with Smithfield, and we were prepared and ready to work with them on ways to bring new investment into the plant. Unfortunately, as a result of this national economic recession, Smithfield executives made the decision to close this facility," Culver said in statement.</p><p>Culver said the state will work with Sioux City to attract new businesses and find new jobs for the employees.</p><p>Sebring said some of Sioux City's production would be moved to other Smithfield plants in Denison, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Crete, Neb. The move would not require the company to add employees, he said.</p><p>A telephone call to Smithfield Foods, the nation's largest pork producer, was not immediately returned Wednesday.</p><p>While unfortunate, the Sioux City plant closing is not unexpected, said Dave Warner, spokesman for the National Pork Producers Council.</p><p>"It's a casualty of a two-year plus economic crisis that pork industry has been in," he said.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67384253&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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