Tyson Chaplain Helps Marshallese Workers Handle New Challenges

Rev. Albon Langbon, the United Church of Christ (UCC) Marshallese pastor in Springdale, Arkansas, also serves as a Chaplain for the Randall Road Tyson Foods plant. Forty-three percent of the employees there are Marshallese.

Since March, Chaplain Langbon has been visiting at least three times a week. Many of the employees speak little English, and he's often called on to serve as a translator.

Most of the Tyson plants in the area have chaplaincy programs. The director of chaplain services for the company told the Northwest Arkansas Morning News,"It's a tangible way for our company to care for our team members."

Tyson's involvement with the Marshallese community does not stop at the plant. Along with the Jones Center for Families in Springdale, Tyson has supported and contributed food to many Marshallese educational activities and community celebrations.

Last month, Chaplain Langbon welcomed Jeffrey Watson, HR Manager at Tyson Foods Springdale Complex, to the annual Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) Constitution Commemoration celebration held over the Memorial Day holiday at the Jones Center.

Springdale is the home to the largest population of Marshallese outside of the islands, with an estimated 6,000-plus residing in the greater Northwest Arkansas area. Marshall Islands citizens, who can reside and work in the United States visa-free under the RMI's Compact of Free Association Agreement with the U.S., have been drawn to the factory jobs in the region for the past two decades.

Many local, county and state officials have embraced the Marshallese community and have been working to help the migrants. The Springdale City Council picked up part of the tab for the Marshallese Outreach Liaison's salary at the Jones Center this year. At the same time, officials have been concerned over the impacts to the health and educational systems.

On Friday, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported that Northwest Arkansas needs more health-care data on its Hispanic and Marshallese populations to find its way during the next growth phase. Several hundred participants, representing health, educational, and community providers, met at the Jones Center on June 19 to work on a community indicators report, assessing the region's quality of life.

Indicators for the newest population are lacking. Kathy Grisham, the executive director of Community Clinic of Springdale and Rogers, said that the region has no health-indicator data — statistics on major diseases such as diabetes and hypertension — for its Hispanic and Marshallese populations.

“When we wrote a grant recently for the Marshallese, we had to use 1993 data from the World Health Organization,” she said.

A recently televised study on inequality of health care in America, included a short-focus on Marshallese population in Northwest Arkansas.

"Unnatural Causes," aired on Public Broadcasting Stations (PBS), told how jobs are plentiful in the food processing plants and the cost of living in Springdale is relatively low, but Marshallese are still facing great obstacles.

"Even though Marshallese here can leave the impoverished conditions of their homeland behind, they can't leave behind the effects of having lived in poverty."

Public Health nurse Sandy Hainline believes the high disease rate results from the pressures of making a new life in an unfamiliar place. Interviewed in Episode Six, "Collateral Damage," Hainline said:

"It’s stressful living here. They’re coming from a nice, tropical climate. They get here and they have to deal with work schedules, with traffic. The cold is a serious issue for them, They just are not used to dealing with cold weather at all and most of them work in the poultry plants where it’s wet and cold at all times. And after about two years of being constantly stressed they break down into tuberculosis or other diseases."

Marshallese community representatives, such as Jones Center's Liaison Carmen Chong Gum and Chaplain Albon Langbon, working with local businesses and resource providers, hold out a safety net and help in times of need.

During Langbon's first week of service for Tyson, a Marshallese employee became ill and died. Pastor Langbon met with his family and performed the funeral service.

Short-term crisis management is also part of the chaplain duties. Langbon, along with two other chaplains working in the Randall and Berry Street plants, wear hard hats to distinguish themselves from line workers and walk through the production lines. When needed, and with supervisory agreement, an employee will talk with the Chaplain for about 15 minutes, and then can go back to the line, "having ventilated his anger, his stress."

- Aenet Rowa, Yokwe Online, June 22, 2008

MORE:

Northwest Arkansas Morning News: A Ministry Of Presence - Tyson Chaplains Meet Employee Needs In Poultry Plants

Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Report to assess quality of life

PBS: Unnatural Causes - Collateral Damage