Tyson Foods will invest nearly $23.5m in a facility in the US state Kentucky facility to meet “increased market demand” for protein.

The US meat giant is planning to expand its site in Robards, Henderson County.

The project involves adding new equipment and upgrading the current facility to boost production capacity and expand product variety. Construction is slated to begin this year and finish by spring 2026.

Tyson, meanwhile, is facing worker discontent further south in Texas where a workers at a beef-processing site are preparing to strike.

Staff at the site in Amarillo who are members of the Teamsters union, representing 3,200 workers in slaughtering and processing, voted 98% in favour of strike action, demanding “higher wages and improved benefits”.

Union president Al Brito said: “Last year, Tyson’s CEO made 525 times that of the median worker. This facility is essential to the beef supply chain but if Tyson’s corporate leadership doesn’t start demonstrating some basic humanity, we will be forced to take action.”

Just Food has approached Tyson for comment.

The union said it lodged several unfair labour practice (ULP) charges against Tyson, accusing the company of breaching labour laws.

It claimed that over the past month, Tyson's management had coerced injured workers into withdrawing claims.

The union also alleged the company misled workers by stating workers would lose their jobs for participating in a strike over claims of unfair labour practices.

In January, Tyson was part of a nine-member group of US poultry processors that had agreed to settle a wage dispute stretching back more than two decades.

The meat giant and the eight other defendants agreed to pay $180.8m to plaintiffs in the latest settlement round, although Tyson Foods and the rest of the group have not admitted liability.

According to the court document, the nine processors “conspired to suppress the compensation paid to workers at poultry processing plants, hatcheries, feed mills and complexes over a nearly twenty-year period”.

"Tyson Foods to invest in Kentucky facility; faces strike in Texas" was originally created and published by Just Food, a GlobalData owned brand.

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