Tyson Foods and Perdue Farms are under federal investigation into whether they relied on migrant children to clean slaughterhouses. The US Department of Labor opened the inquiries after an article found migrant children working overnight shifts for contractors in the companies’ plants in Virginia. Tyson said it was now directly employing cleaners at 40% of its slaughterhouses and aimed to bring more of this work in house. Perdue said it had hired an outside auditor to suggest new policies.

The Labor Department has also opened investigations into the companies that have been running the cleaning shifts for Tyson and Perdue in Virginia: Fayette Industrial, which works with Perdue, and QSI, which works with Tyson and is part of a conglomerate, the Vincit Group. Fayette and QSI said they had policies against child labour and were not aware of the federal investigations. Tyson said it planned to end its relationship with QSI at several plants, while Perdue has told Fayette it may end its contract.

A protest by a coalition of North American worker organisations a month after the news urged the company to treat workers with dignity and respect. An aim of the march, which ended at Tyson Foods headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas was reportedly to hold Tyson Foods accountable for child labour in its facilities. Tyson did not respond to Arkansas Advocate's request for comment.