Smithfield, Tar Heel Workers Continue Walk Out at World’s Largest Pork Plant for Second Day
Company continues to refuse to meet with workers, law says Smithfield is NOT required to fire employees for social security no matches
(Tar Heel, NC) - Hundreds of predominantly Latino and African-American workers walked out of and shut down the world’s largest pork processing plant yesterday in Tar Heel, North Carolina in a spontaneous protest over a recent wave of firings at the plant. The walk out continued this morning. Hundreds of workers arrived at the plant this morning at 5 a.m.
Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel has a long history of firing workers organizing for their rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals recently upheld the National Labor Relations Board findings that Smithfield threatened, harassed, fired and threatened with firing workers engaged in trying to secure the protection of a union contract. In another case, Smithfield was found to have used its private company police force to assault and threaten workers with arrest by federal immigration authorities.
“This is nothing new,” says Gene Bruskin, Director of the Smithfield Justice Campaign, “Smithfield consistently violates the law and uses threats, fear and intimidation to keep workers toiling in horrendous conditions.”
The company claims that it fired workers who were unable to match social security numbers to their names which is in direct violation of the regulations of the Social Security Administration. Later, the company said it was complying with requests from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Neither agency requires that workers be fired if there are discrepancies.
“Smithfield fired these workers following a spate of activities in which workers began to stand up and demand their rights. The timing reeks of Smithfield’s continued pattern of intimidation and fear,” continued Bruskin.
In Smithfield operations where workers are represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), contract language provides for a systematic and constructive process for workers and the employer to resolve issues such as immigration and work status. “Smithfield is clearly using the ‘no match’ issue as a means to terrorize immigrant workers regardless of their legal status with the express purpose of suppressing the worker-led organizing that is reaching across racial lines in unprecedented numbers,” said Bruskin.
Smithfield Tar Heel has been the subject of two Human Rights Watch reports documenting widespread dangerous conditions. A recent report by Research Associates of America, uses data from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to document skyrocketing injuries at the plant. This year alone serious injuries rose at the rate of 80 percent.
The Smithfield Justice campaign (www.smithfieldjustice.com), a coalition of immigrant rights, civil rights, faith, labor and student groups has launched a holiday campaign to ask consumers not to use products from the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel at their holiday parties.
###
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.
