After more than two weeks of sitting still, limited production picked back up inside the Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Postville Wednesday. An inside source at the plant told YWN that limited chicken production began on Wednesday afternoon.

More than 100 employees clocked in at the Agriprocessors plant Wednesday, fulfilling such jobs as maintenance and chicken kill. Hundreds of others are still wondering whether they will ever work there again.

Wednesday night Agripocessors workers didn’t find the answers they had hoped for. A court-appointed trustee told them the company can’t guarantee any more jobs, and that for now only workers back at the plant will gradually receive back pay. Everyone else has to file a claim in bankruptcy court. And there’s no saying when or if those workers will get their money.

But trying to survive without health insurance, mounting bills and little food has put these workers and their families in desperate situations.

Agriprocessors operating bills are covered through the end of next week. But the court-appointed trustee is optimistic the bankruptcy court will approve financing for a longer period of time.

The court-appointed trustee says that’s important because an operating plant is easier to sell. Even though there are not enough funds right now for beef production, this New York bankruptcy lawyers says the plant can still be marketable if it ramps up its chicken production. He also says he has already heard from multiple parties interested in buying the plant, but nothing is final right now.

(Dov Gordon – YWN / KCRG)