For immediate release 2/13/07 Contact: Leila McDowell 202 728 1829Lmcdowell@ufcw.org
Smithfield's firing of North Carolina workers prompts Senator Kennedy to ask Department of Homeland Security Secretary for a temporary suspension of regulations
Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Ma) chair of the Department of Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, in a letter delivered to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, is asking that the proposed regulations governing social security number no match regulations be held "in abeyance" until they can be reviewed by Congress.
Citing Smithfield's cooperation with the IMAGE program, Senator Kennedy writes that the company used the program to fire workers without giving them adequate time to respond to mismatched information. IMAGE, an initiative of the Department of Homeland Security, is being widely shunned by the business community but has been used to fire and arrest workers at Smithfield. Smithfield entered into a voluntary partnership with IMAGE following the successful launching of a nation campaign to support workers organizing efforts in Tar Heel. Several leaders of a recent walk out at Smithfield and workers engaged in advocacy for better conditions at the plant have received letters that they will be fired. A coalition of civil rights, labor, immigrant rights, faith, consumer advocates and student groups have called for a moratorium on arrests because of concerns that Smithfield is using the arrests to threaten and intimidate workers who are trying to form a union. This would be in violation of the Department of Homeland Security's own guidelines on worksite enforcement during labor disputes.
"We applaud the Senator's initiative," says Bruskin, director of the Smithfield Justice Campaign, "it is an important step in stopping Smithfield from using its cooperation with IMAGE as a smokescreen to intimidate workers. The company has been found in legal rulings to have illegally threatened workers who are advocating for better conditions with arrest by immigration authorities. Now they are making good on those threats and using our immigration laws to intimidate workers." Bruskin said.
"It is imperative that Congress takes the time to examine existing verification systems." Senator Kennedy wrote in asking the Secretary of Homeland Security to defer any issuance of final regulations until Congress is able to complete action on comprehensive immigration reform.
Workers at Smithfield have been trying to form a union with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the nation's largest meatpacking and food retail labor union, for approximately 14 years.
For more information contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829.
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The Council of Churches of Greater Washington, a coalition of 75 area churches, passed a resolution condemning Smithfield Foods for creating an environment of intimidation and fear for workers and encourages its congregants to take direct action by not purchasing Smithfield products and contacting the company. Click for a copy of the resolution in html or as a pdf.
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.
