Laid off from Foster Farms.

What Foster Farms layoffs have meant for employees

In Oregon, the Portland plant's phase-out, which a 1996 Lewiston Tribune report tied to the start of a new plant in Kelso, Washington, and Creswell's 2001 layoffs and 2006 closing were steps in one consolidation. Kelso had been built to take in all the smaller plants the company had acquired, Creswell's plant manager told The Register-Guard in 2006, and he called his own plant's closing eight years in the works. A union official said the company was offering travel and some moving expenses to Creswell workers who followed their jobs north, saying it needed workers in Kelso, which by then employed about 800. That offer was a job in another state, so if your plant closes and relocation is part of what's offered, the distance and the cost of moving are part of what to weigh.

Turlock's letter left each person's last day inside a window. The letter, as the Turlock Journal quoted it, set each job to end on May 9 or within the 14 days that followed and said “Bumping rights are not available for affected employees,” so a laid-off worker had no claim on a job held by someone with less seniority. Together, those terms let people from the same operation leave on different days while none of them could stay on by taking a less senior colleague's job. The adjacent fully cooked poultry plant was still operating in November 2025, The Business Journal reported, and the company had said no other Foster Farms facility would be affected. If you received a letter that names a last day, that's the date worth comparing with when your pay and benefits end.

The severance scale the Register-Guard reported for Creswell's 2006 closing came out of union bargaining. Its workers heard about the closing on a Thursday and met union representatives the next day about relocation, severance and retraining, and UFCW Local 555, which represented most of the production floor, said it had negotiated some severance pay. Workers at Foster Farms' Lamona plant in Fresno ratified their first contract with UFCW 8-Golden State in October 2025, with grievance and arbitration procedures. If you're covered by a contract, the local that negotiated it can explain what it says about layoffs, transfers and severance.

Foster Farms changed hands in 2022, when Atlas Holdings bought it and Poultry Times put its workforce at about 10,000, and the company's 2025 moves split between ending jobs and handing them on. Turlock's fresh turkey work stopped, while Case Farms bought the Louisiana complex at Farmerville, a deal Atlas Holdings announced in August 2025. In November 2025, that same Business Journal report said Diestel Family Ranch, the buyer of the closed Turlock plant, was hiring maintenance mechanics, electricians, refrigeration technicians, supervisors and general plant labor. If your plant is sold, you might ask the new owner, in writing, whether your Foster Farms years carry over for pay, vacation or seniority.

Foster Farms accounts for nine notices in our WARN tracker, two of them filed in 1998 under Fircrest Farms and Lynden Farms, the names on its plants near Eugene and in Portland in that same Lewiston Tribune report. A 2017 notice for 158 jobs in Livingston names Foster Farms in parentheses, but the filer was PSSI, a sanitation contractor. For a California job, the state's own notice rules sit on California layoffs and its claim process on California unemployment benefits; Oregon has the same pair in Oregon layoffs and Oregon unemployment benefits.

How Foster Farms's layoffs compare to other companies

Foster Farms wasn't alone in cutting turkey jobs in 2025. Cargill said it would close its Springdale, Arkansas turkey plant on Aug. 1, affecting 1,100 employees, and Manufacturing Dive set both closings against waning demand and an average wholesale price for frozen whole hen turkeys that fell nearly 33% in 2024.

A sourced history of Foster Farms layoffs

• January 2025, Turlock fresh turkey operations closing

  Foster Farms told workers in a letter dated January 24, 2025 it was closing its Turlock fresh turkey plant, live haul and feed mill, a loss of 519 jobs the Turlock Journal reported, and said its processing plant employees would get the choice of transferring to available jobs at other Central Valley facilities.

• July 2014, Porterville layoff notice

  A Foster Poultry Farms layoff notice dated July 17, 2014 listed 60 jobs at Porterville, California, effective September 19.

• August 2006, Creswell, Oregon plant closing

  Foster Farms announced it would close its Creswell plant and move its remaining Northwest chicken processing to Kelso, Washington, a change The Register-Guard said would cut 53 jobs by early October, with relocation assistance or severance pay offered.

• 2001, Creswell layoffs for Kelso's ramp-up

  In 2001 Foster Farms laid off 140 of its 250 Creswell employees, layoffs The Register-Guard said were ordered to accommodate a ramp-up at Kelso. The Oregon notice, dated February 26, 2001, listed 137 jobs.

• October 1998, Creswell cut and later rehiring

  About 130 jobs were cut at Creswell in October 1998, as The Register-Guard recounted in 2006, and the workers were rehired seven months later.

• May 1998, Lynden Farms plant in Portland closing

  Foster Farms planned in 1996 to phase out its Lynden Farms plant in Portland once a new Kelso, Washington plant started up, as the Lewiston Tribune reported, and the plant's closing notice, dated May 12, 1998, listed 312 jobs.

What to do if you're laid off from Foster Farms

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Foster Farms's biggest hubs: California, Oregon. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Foster Farms's hub states run: California, Oregon, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.