Meat+Poultry - December 2017 - 21

INDUSTRY UPDATE

2017
:;907

company," he says.
Eldon's son, Nick Roth, who is
also a member of the BPI team, says
three plants were closed: Amarillo,
Texas; Garden City, Kansas; and
Waterloo, Iowa; and there were
layoffs at a fourth facility and
corporate offices resulting in 750
people losing their jobs. "Many
more saw reductions in the hours
they worked, and the impact was
obviously felt in the communities
we called home, and by our
suppliers and customers," Nick Roth
Eldon Roth
says. "So far, almost 600 of those
employees, both former and current,
have been able to reconnect with us
and complete their applications. They are part of the family."
Eldon Roth notes, "Our success has always been a result of people
helping us and each other, which created a culture in the company that
makes this fund a natural extension of the BPI way of doing things."
He says the fund was established to assist former employees who
were adversely affected by the 2012 plant closings and associated layoffs.
Decisions regarding fund participation will be based on criteria such
as length of service with BPI, unemployment or other benefits employees
may have received from churches and other support groups, Roth says.

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FINAL CHAPTER
But the establishment of the employees' fund by the Roth family is not
the end of the BPI/ABC News saga. The latest blow to Disney/ABC's
fortunes comes in a lawsuit filed by American International Group Inc.
(AIG), Disney's insurance company. AIG is attempting to avoid paying
the reimbursement costs from BPI's settlement following the defamation
lawsuit. According to Reuters News Agency, in a complaint filed in a
New York State court in New York City, AIG urged a judge to reject a $25
million reimbursement demanded by Walt Disney Co. This is related to
Disney's larger $177 million settlement with BPI that took place this past
June, under an insurance policy that excluded coverage for claims that
allege malice.
AIG said in its lawsuit that Disney's insurance policy covered some
defamation claims, but only if the company first found an outside lawyer
to say the statements it planned to broadcast were acceptable. The
insurer, based in New York, accused Disney of trying to "create coverage
where none exists."
Rich Jochum, corporate administrator and general counsel for BPI,
said the company couldn't elaborate any further on the settlement based
on confidentiality provisions.
Originally BPI was seeking $1.9 billion in damages, which could have
escalated up to $5.7 billion under South Dakota's food disparagement law,
so legal observers view the Disney/ABC News decision to settle the case as
a financially motivated business decision. An ABC spokeswoman said the
TV network concluded that continued litigation of the case with the meat
processing company was not in the company's (ABC's) best interests.

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Meat+Poultry - December 2017

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