June 17, 2025
Agri Beef, the Indiana Packers Corporation and a proposed class of workers at red meat processing plants have reached settlements totaling $2.5 million in a suit alleging a nationwide conspiracy to suppress wages.
Lead plaintiffs Ron Brown and Minka Garmon asked U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer on Friday to preliminarily approve the settlements with Agri Beef and its unit Washington Beef, along with Indiana Packers, bringing the total settlements in the suit to more than $200 million.
Agri Beef and Washington Beef agreed to a $1.4 million settlement in April, while Indiana Packers reached a $1.1 million settlement with the workers on June 10.
Agri Beef and Indiana Packers are the 11th and 12th parties to settle. Three defendant families are left in the litigation — Smithfield Foods Inc. and Smithfield Packaged Meats Corp., Greater Omaha Packing, and Agri Stats.
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The workers are represented by Shana E. Scarlett, Rio S. Pierce, Abby R. Wolf, Steve W. Berman, Breanna Van Engelen and Abigail D. Pershing of Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, George F. Farah, Rebecca P. Chang, Nicholas J. Jackson, Rachel E. Nadas, Matthew K. Handley, Martha E. Guarnieri and William H. Anderson of Handley Farah & Anderson PLLC, Brent W. Johnson, Benjamin D. Brown, Alison S. Deich, Zachary R. Glubiak, Zachary I. Krowitz, Robert A. Braun, Sabrina Merold and Daniel H. Silverman of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, Brian D. Clark, Stephen J. Teti and Eura Chang of Lockridge Grindal Nauen PLLP, and Candice J. Enders, Eric L. Cramer and Julia R. McGrath of Berger Montague PC.
Read Agri Beef, Indiana Packers Strike $2.5M Deal in Wage-Fix Suit.