For immediate release 12/06/06 Contact: Lauren Herman 617-566-6281 cell 551 427 1652 Lauren@workmenscircleboston.org
The Workmen's Circle/Arbeter Ring
AREA FIFTH GRADERS CALL ON SUPERMARKETS TO DROP PORK PRODUCTS FROM COMPANY IMPLICATED IN WORKER CRUELTY, JOIN NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN, WILL MEET CHILDREN OF ABUSED MEATPACKERS
Hundreds of parents and children from seven towns in the Boston area will be led by the fifth grade class of The Workmens Circle Jewish Sunday school on international human rights day in a protest against Smithfield Packing at the Somerville Johnnys Foodmaster. 105 Alewife Brook Parkway
They will deliver a letter demanding that the supermarket remove the Tar Heel, NC produced Smithfield products from their shelves until the company stops the abuse of workers and allows its employees the protection of a union contract. The Boston area is one of the companys largest markets for products out of the plant.
The students have been learning about the sweatshops their Jewish ancestors toiled in when they first arrived in the US and are outraged that such injustice still exists today in this country. Workers at the Tar Heel Smithfield Packaging plant, the largest pork processing plant in the world, face degrading and dangerous working conditions. The company has been cited by Human Rights Watch for violating international human rights standards and has been found in widespread violation of the law in several National Labor Relations Board decisions and the US Court of Appeals. Violations in various cases against the company, which recently had its own private police force, include threatening, intimidating, assaulting, hurling racial epithets at, threatening with arrest, unlawfully firing; Smithfield Packing has created an environment of intimidation, racial tension, and sometimes violence for workers who want a voice on the job.
The childrens protest will run from 1:00-2:30 pm in a colorful protest with signs and song. The students will be joined by the children of Smithfield workers, labor, community, and religious leaders. The event is also co-sponsored by Chelsea Collaborative, City Life/Vita Urbana, Jewish Labor Committee, Massachusetts Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice, Massachusetts Jobs With Justice, and the North Shore Labor Council.
The Workmens Circle students carry on the long tradition of Eastern European Jewish immigrants - including many of their grandparents and great grandparents. The Workmens Circle was founded over 100 years ago by sweatshop workers and became known as the Red Cross of Labor. Today, the Boston Workmens Circle is a thriving social justice and cultural center serving eastern Massachusetts.
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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.
