Gov. Stitt highlights OSHA citation at Guymon plant during Texas County tour
Stitt used his Texas County stop to spotlight a Guymon pork plant cited by OSHA for ergonomic hazards. The facility has faced repeated federal safety scrutiny.
Gov. Kevin Stitt said, “Got a chance to stop in Texas County during my 77 County tour this week,” and his post singled out a Guymon plant that OSHA had cited for exposing employees to ergonomic hazards. The facility is Seaboard Foods’ pork processing and packing plant, one of the largest industrial employers in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
OSHA’s Dec. 2, 2021 news release said the U.S. Department of Labor cited one of the nation’s largest pork processors for exposing workers to repetitive motion injuries and proposed a $27,306 penalty. The citation, as described in related coverage of the Guymon case, accused Seaboard Foods of failing to prevent workers at the meat processing and packing plant from being exposed to repetitive motion injuries. OSHA’s ergonomics guidance says those hazards can contribute to musculoskeletal disorders, strain, lifting problems and other injuries.
That matters in Guymon because the plant is a major economic engine. A search result quoting the governor’s video said the facility harvests 22,000 hogs every day, employs more than 2,800 Oklahomans and produces more than 4 million pounds of pork daily. At that scale, changes tied to an OSHA citation can reach far beyond the plant floor, affecting training, equipment, staffing, compliance costs and the confidence of workers who rely on the payroll.
The Guymon facility has faced federal safety scrutiny before. In 2015, OSHA proposed a $51,000 fine against Seaboard Foods in Guymon over alleged anhydrous ammonia exposure. A later report said OSHA also forced Seaboard Foods to make changes at the Guymon facility to better protect workers. Taken together, those actions show a plant that has repeatedly drawn attention from regulators on issues that go directly to employee health and plant operations.
Stitt’s visit put Texas County back in the statewide conversation, but the issue at the center of his post was not ceremonial. It was a workplace-compliance problem involving one of Guymon’s biggest employers, a high-volume processing line and the kind of safety enforcement that can ripple through jobs and the local economy when federal regulators step in.
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