HARRIS TEETER TARGET OF PROTESTS IN 16 CITIES FOR SELLING SMITHFIELD PORK FROM ABUSIVE PACKING PLANT
Thousands sign petition calling for Harris Teeter to remove Smithfield's problem pork
Southeast Day of Action on Saturday, March 31st with simultaneous demonstrations in front of 16 Harris Teeters in North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee
WHAT: Clergy, civil rights leaders and consumer advocates from across the Southeast call on Harris Teeter supermarkets to find a new supplier for its house brand bacons. Harris Teeter's bacon is produced by Smithfield, a company with a long history of mistreating workers at the world's largest pork plant in Tar Heel, NC. Advocates demand that Harris Teeter stop selling all pork from Smithfield's Tar Heel, NC plant, until the mistreatment and abuse of workers ends. Thousands of signed petitions calling for the removal of Smithfield pork will be presented to Harris Teeter.
WHO: Religious leaders, civil and immigrant rights groups, workers and consumers.
WHEN: Saturday, March 31st at 11:00 AM – NOON
WHERE: Simultaneous demonstrations to be held in front of these 16 Harris Teeter locations:
Arlington, VA: Hyde Park Plaza, 600 North Glembe Road
Asheville, NC: Biltmore Parkway Centre, 1378 Hendersonville Road
Chapel Hill, NC: 1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Charleston, SC: East Bay Trading Station, 290 East Bay Street
Charlotte, NC: 1704 Central Avenue
Durham, NC: 1817 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway
Fayetteville: Highland Centre, 2800 Raeford Road
Florence, SC: Cashua Place, 1913 West Palmetto Street
Greensboro, NC: 4640 W. Market Street
Hickory, NC: Belle Hollow, 3010 North Center Street
High Point, NC: High Point Mall, 265 Eastchester Drive
Nashville, TN: Hillsboro Village, 2201 21st Ave. South
Raleigh, NC: Cameron Village, 500 Oberlin Road
Rocky Mount, NC: West Ridge Village, 3649 Sunset Avenue
BACKGROUND: The 5,500 workers at Smithfield's Tar Heel, NC plant slaughter and disassemble 32,000 hogs per day – that's 33 hogs per minute. To meet production goals, the processing lines move exceedingly fast. Workers are under extreme pressure to keep up, and some have reported being verbally abused, or even fired, if they fall behind. Smithfield Packing has been condemned in two Human Rights Watch reports for widespread, dangerous working conditions. A recent report on injuries, based on OSHA data, found that injuries rose 200 percent since 2003. Smithfield was found in various legal rulings to have physically assaulted, threatened with arrest by immigration authorities, threatened with bodily harm, intimidated and hurled racial epithets at employees trying to vote in elections for a union or advocating for better working conditions.
We are encouraged by the progress we have seen Harris Teeter make in removing Smithfield Tar Heel pork but we want them to finish the job," says Rev. Nelson Johnson, co-founder of the Southern Faith, Labor and Community Alliance. "On March 31st, we will demonstrate to Harris Teeter that we have mobilized broad consumer support behind the call for Harris Teeter to find a new supplier for its bacon and to remove all remaining Smithfield Tar Heel pork. We are telling Harris Teeter we don't want pork that's packaged with worker abuse. Harris Teeter has a special responsibility to its customers and should not be supporting the abuse of its hard working people."
For more contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829
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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.
