SMITHFIELD WORKERS FILE OSHA COMPLAINT OVER LACK OF CLEAN DRINKING WATER AND SAFETY HAZARDS
COMPANY REFUSES TO MEET GROUP OF EMPLOYEES PETITIONING FOR WATER
A group of Smithfield Packing Tar Heel workers at the world's largest pork processing plant are filing a complaint today with OSHA (the Occupational Safety and Health Administration) over the lack of access to clean drinking water and the disrepair of key facilities that have caused a rash of recent injuries, workers say.
"We work in hot temperatures. Sometimes we wait up to three hours to get the water. One of our fellow employees collapsed this month after becoming dizzy. He had not been provided fresh water for six hours," says livestock worker Oliver Hunt. Workers in the livestock department say that just this month alone, they have seen their colleagues suffer from a broken tooth, twisted ankle, injured knee, low back injury, and foot smashed by a broken gate.
A group of employees marched to the office of Smithfield Packing Vice President Larry Johnson asking to meet to solve the problem of water access and facility repairs but Smithfield management refused. It was the second time in a month that the group of workers tried to talk with management to no avail.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has been helping workers who are fighting for a union at the plant, is not a signatory to the OSHA complaint.
Over 25 ministers, the state NAACP and faith leaders from across North Carolina sent a letter today to Johnson demanding that workers be given access to clean drinking water and that the company meet with them to hear their concerns. The ministers and others will be marching next month in Charlotte with children of workers to deliver a Father's Day plea to the head of Harris Teeter to stop selling products from Smithfield in Tar Heel. " This water issue only increases our outrage," says Reverend Nelson Johnson, one of the signers.
Smithfield is currently running a statewide television ad campaign touting Smithfield as a great place for its employees.
"Sadly the ads are the opposite of the truth. We want to help create the kind of company that those Smithfield ads are promising but right now does not exist. We want Smithfield to thrive but not on the backs of injured and abused workers" said Keith Ludlum, another Smithfield employee.
Smithfield has been found in legal rulings to have assaulted, intimidated, illegally fired and used racial epithets against its workers. It recently was forced to pay over one million dollars in back pay and reinstate a number of illegally terminated employees.
For information or to speak with workers contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829.
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.
