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July 12, 2008
Friday (7-11) was the last day of work for most of the employees of the former Willow Brook Foods plants in downtown Springfield.
"It hurts... it hurts real bad," said Shela Scott.
She worked on the cut-up line, and had worked for Willow Brook a total of 9 years before Cargill bought them out.
She and nearly 800 others lost their jobs when Cargill bought the company in March and decided to shut down the Springfield plants.
It was one of the largest layoffs ever in Springfield's history.
Cargill said high feed and energy costs make it impossible to keep the turkey processing facilities open.
The company has been laying off about 600 workers this week.
Shela Scott was one of them.
“I'll pinch pennies... I'm worried about losing my house; I'm worried about putting gas in the car. It's a total stop you wonder how you're going to eat. I have no medical insurance, and I have epilepsy,” she said.
Scott says many former Cargill employees are in the same situation.
She's already filed for unemployment.
“You save your pennies, your nickels, your dimes and quarters, you'll need them all. And what I got in my bank aint going to last long...been there done that. You're going to hit rock bottom if something doesn't turn up soon... there's a lot of us that way,” she said.
Some of the employees will remain on the job until the plants close in September.
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