In the summer, he always takes the family to Missouri for a long weekend. They camp by a river, explore cliffs and caves and take an all day canoe trip.

He’s been moving up the Cargill ladder, too.

His secret to success may be attitude as well as a strong back. Even when he was driving a forklift, he’d stop between runs, jump down and assist those who needed it.

Rios describes his motto as “anything I can do to help.”

When he was a younger employee, supervisors saw that work ethic and wanted to promote him. He passed on the offer. After all, he made enough to support himself, had no responsibilities outside of his own job, could come in, do his work and then go home.

A year or two later, his attitude changed.

“Now I [had] a family, so I accepted,” he said. “That way, I could have whatever I can for the kids to give them a better life.”

After six years in production jobs he became a supervisor. Two years later — just a few months ago — he was promoted again, this time to general supervisor.

Now he oversees six regular supervisors as well as three trainers. The two “departments” they run, Loin Boning and Ham Boning, have a total of 250 workers.

It’s those 250 employees Rios talks about most.

“If it wasn’t for my people, we’d be nothing,” he said. “If they weren’t there, what could we do? What could one person do? I’m there to guide them.”

To do that, he feels he needs to know what’s happening on the line.

“I consider myself one of the [workers]. Normally, I try to talk to each person,” he said. “I like to communicate and do my best for the people.”

Rios grew up in his native California but also spent a few years in his parents’ homeland of Mexico.

These days, he said he has workers who speak English and workers who speak Spanish.