For immediate release 5/14/07 Contact: Leila McDowell 202 728 1829
UNITED NATIONS INVESTIGATES SMITHFIELD PACKING's TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANT WORKERS
NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD ISSUES NEW COMPLAINT AGAINST MASSIVE PORK PROCESSOR
UN HEARING Weds. MAY 16th, 3pm AFL CIO, 815 16th StreetNW, DC
The United Nations Human Rights Council will hear testimony from several injured workers from the massive Smithfield pork processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina that has a long history of violations of labor law and alleged abuse of its workers. The hearing on Wednesday, May 16th will probe how immigrant workers are being treated at the world's largest pork processing plant. Smithfield was found in the past by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to have unlawfully used threats of arrest by immigration authorities to repress advocacy by employees. Recently, it fired and had arrested a number of its immigrant workers. The announcement of firings promoted a massive walkout at the plant in November last year.
In a separate action, The NLRB has issued a new complaint on charges that the company is "interfering with, restraining, and coercing its employees" in retaliation for "protected concerted activities." An NLRB hearing is scheduled for June 25th in North Carolina
Two women former immigrant employees will testify before the United Nations special rapporteur Jorge Bustamante who is in the US investigating the conditions of immigrant workers. Guadalupe Valdez, a Mexican immigrant was severely injured while working at Smithfield and terminated. Diagnosed with carpal tunnels syndrome, and a torn tendon, she now owes over $70,000 in medical bills. Teresa Nieto has remained unemployed for two years after being forced to quit following an injury at the plant where she could no longer use her hand and was diagnosed with slipped discs and a pinched nerve. Injuries have risen 200 percent since 2003 at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel according to OSHA data. The number is likely higher due to underreporting of injuries by workers and the company. Many workers report that they are often forced back to work without adequate care after suffering an injury, subsequently fired when they can no longer keep up with the work and denied workers compensation and health insurance.
Smithfield has been found in various legal rulings to have illegally assaulted, intimidated, threatened, fired and used racial epithets against it workers who have been struggling for 12 years to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
For interviews please contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829 or LMcDowell@UFCW.org
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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.
