ATLANTA CHURCHES, CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS THROW SUPPORT TOIMMIGRANT WORKERS IN LANDMARK CAMPAIGN AGAINST NATION’SLARGEST PORK PROCESSING PLANT
Ads, supermarket actions, and church services mark national campaign beginning in Atlanta, six other cities June19-22
“Smithfield products are packaged with abuse. There’s blood on that bacon” supporters say
WHAT: Press availability with civil rights groups, area black churches, immigrant rights organizations and labor leaders groups who are launching a campaign in support of support approximately 5 ,500 predominantly immigrant and African American workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel North Carolina. The workers are fighting against sweatshop conditions at the world’s largest pork processing plant. Atlanta coalition delegates will meet with approximately 20 retail supermarket managers in the Atlanta area to urge that their markets stop stocking Smithfield product from Tar Heel until conditions are changed for workers there.
WHO: Civil Rights and faith leaders including Reverend James Orange, Helen Butler, Georgia People’s Agenda; Erik Meder, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Reverend Rafael Allen, Concerned Black Clergy, Edward Dubose, State chairman of the NAACP; Janice Mathis, Rainbow Coalition, Eric Taylor, UFCW and former Smithfield workers who will t ell their stories of abuse and injury.
WHEN: Thursday, June 22nd at 11:00am Press Availability followed by delegation visits to 20 area supermarkets.
WHERE: IBEW Auditorium, 153 Richardson Street SW
BACKGROUND: Smithfield has been found liable in several National Labor Relations Board and Federal Court decisions for assaulting, intimidating, threatening with deportation and unlawfully firing employees during attempts to form a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Two reports by the internationally respected organization, Human Rights Watch, have documented widespread violations of basic human and labor rights. Workers cite dangerous and unsafe conditions, including blinding line speeds that leave many workers permanently disabled. Employees are routinely fired when they are injured, workers say. "This is a chance to say no to an anti-immigrant company that feels they can terrorize workers at will. We are issuing a moral appeal to consumers and supermarkets to think twice about purchasing Smithfield products from that plant” Says Reverend Graylan Hagler, president of a coalition of 600 church congregations nationwide, "We are telling people to say no to blood on their bacon."
DC City Council introduces resolution condemning Smithfield Foods for creating an environment of intimidation and fear for workers and encourages all supermarkets and vendors in DC from stocking Smithfield meat products. Click for a copy of the resolution in html or as a pdf.
The August '08 issue of Business North Carolina features a cover story on the Justice@Smithfield campaign. Read the article in html or as a pdf.
New York Times columnist Adam Liptak discusses the lawsuit against Justice@Smithfield and the First Amendment. Read the column.
Fayetteville Observer: "Ruling forbids Smithfield Packing using threats"
The March '08 cover story in Labor Notes asks, "Is Fighting for Justice at Smithfield Racketeering?"
Smithifield's Tar Heel workers win a paid Martin Luther King Holiday. Read the press release.
Avram Lyon says when he sees Paula Deen on TV, "all I can think of are the people working under horrible conditions at Smithfield." Read his article in the Forward.
Breast Cancer foundation sues Smithfield Foods for trademark violation.
Read Justice@Smithifield's statement on the U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit court ruling on Smithfield.
The final quarter of Paula Deen's hour-long appearence on NPR's Diane Rehm Show Nov. 28 was dominated by questions over her association with Smithfield Foods. Listen to the show using Windows Media Viewer or Real Player.
On Thursday, November 8, 2007, activists with the Western Massachusetts Jobs With Justice organized a protest outside a brand new Big Y supermarket in Northampton. Read More.
On September 12, the Bergen County (NJ) Central Trades and Labor Council passed a resolution calling on Smithfield to "[o]bey the law, by providing a safe workplace, giving Smithfield workers the right to chose a union...free from interferene of any kind."
On August 6, Smithfield Tar Heel plant worker Jose Ozorio Figueroa was terminated. Company representatives claim it was for showing up four minutes late to his shift, but Ozorio believes that he was fired for his union activities. Read his statement.
Presidential Master Chef Talli V. Counsel asks celebrity chef Paula Deen to use her influence to end the “brutal working conditions” at Smithfield’s Tar Heel Plant. Read more.
On August 1, 2007, the City of Boston passed a resolution calling on the city to "review its purchasing of any products from the Smithfield Packing Company in Tar Heel, North Carolina....and suspend these purchases until the company ends all form of abuse, inimidation and violence against its workers..." It also encourages Boston supermarkets "to consider suspending their purchase of any Smithfield products..."
On Saturday, July 14, dozens of Nashville clergy, civil rights leaders and consumers rallied to demand that two area supermarkets to stop stocking Smithfield Foods pork products made at the company’s Tar Heel plant. Read more.
More than 100 supporters rallied in front of a Publix supermarket in Atlanta to demand that the market stop carrying pork products from Smithfield's Tar Heel plant. Read More.
More than 250 family members and supporters of Smithfield Workers delivered a Father’s Day Card to Harris Teeter’s president. Read the news coverage [With Video].
On June 4, the City of Cambridge, MA unanimously passed a resolution in support Smithfield workers in Tar Heel. Read the historic resolution.
Children of Smithfield workers will deliver a Father's Day card to Harris Teeter's PresidentDownload the flyer.
Jim Hightower: Paula Deen "has cooked up a big ol' mess of political controversy for herself." Read the story.
