Meat processors wrestle with worker shortages as US economy reopens from COVID-19 With protein demand soaring, companies like Tyson Foods are offering employees better benefits and flexible hours as they consider wider use of automation throughout their businesses. Published June 9, 2021 Paula Bronstein via Getty Images For Tyson Foods, the onset of the summer grilling season and consumers' return to restaurants has the beef, pork and poultry processing giant preparing for strong demand for its protein-rich offerings. But the upbeat outlook is being tempered by understaffed processing lines at some of its 140 plants amid struggles to attract and retain new workers — a snapshot of the ongoing labor shortages rippling throughout the food industry and other sectors of the U.S. economy.