UNIONS, CHURCHES, WORKERS TURN UP HEAT ON CELEBRITY CHEF PAULA DEEN
Prayer vigil outside Deen promotional appearance to ask chef to end partnership with abusive pork processing company
Women workers from Smithfield Foods will deliver a letter asking for meeting with Deen
Weds. April 18th 6:00 pm National Museum of Natural History (10th St. and Constitution Ave., NW) Washington DC
"We will be praying for her to do the right thing", says Fran Rogers a worker at the behemoth Smithfield pork processing plant in Tar Heel North Carolina. Fran, whose ear was cut by a wizard knife at the plant, says she hopes that Deen, whose family friendly style is her trademark, is only collaborating with Smithfield foods because she doesn't know the facts yet. Rogers plans to travel from North Carolina to personally deliver a letter from employees to Deen who has inked a wide ranging partnership deal with Smithfield to promote their pork products. Deen is touring to promote her new book "It Ain't all about the cooking".
"It ain't just about the cooking," Rogers says, " it's about a company that is abusing its workers. I can't believe a woman with her values would support a company that is doing so much to cause suffering for our families. She must not know the truth. "
Backed by churches, the large Change to Win labor coalition and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, workers and faith leaders will hold a small prayer vigil outside her appearance in DC while others go inside to deliver their letter. They hope that Paula Deen will meet with them and once she learns of their plight end her partnership with Smithfield products.
Kathie Lee Gifford was similarly targeted over sweatshops involved in the manufacturing of her line of clothes causing her to eventually change suppliers.
Smithfield Foods was found in numerous legal rulings to have assaulted, used racial epithets against, harassed, intimidated, threatened and illegally fired its workers. Human Rights Watch has documented widespread dangerous conditions in two reports on the company where injuries are up 200 percent over the past three years based on OSHA data.
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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.
