SHREVEPORT COMMUNITY, FAITH , CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS AND WORKERS TELL CELEBRITY CHEF PAULA DEEN THAT "IT AIN'T ALL ABOUT THE COOKIN' "
Peaceful vigil beginning 2:30pm Saturday, June 2nd CenturyTel Arena, followed by "Smithfield Free" fish fry
A peaceful vigil will be held outside Paula Deen's June 2nd 4pm cooking show in front of the Century Tel Arena, 2000 CenturyTel Center Drive in Bossier City, to ask the chef to end its relationship with Smithfield, the abusive pork processing company. A "Smithfield, Tar Heel -free" fish fry for the community will follow.
Concerned community members from will attempt to deliver a letter to Paula Deen written by Smithfield workers from the company's massive pork plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina seeking a meeting with Ms. Deen. Organizations across the country are vowing to follow the chef during her tour until she accepts the letter and agrees to hear the concerns of the families working at Smithfield. Shreveport is the first in that tour.
The letter explains the injustices that Tar Heel's predominantly African American and Latino workers have to face everyday by the sponsor of Deen's national tour, Smithfield Foods. They will also be giving out literature to the public to raise consumer awareness about the abuses the workers suffer. The company was found in various legal rulings to have assaulted, intimidated and used racial epithets against its workers. Many workers say that they suffer crippling injuries, are fired when they can't keep up with the work and then left without health insurance or the ability to earn a living.
During a recent April appearance by Deen in Washington, DC a mother of three who was injured while working at Smithfield, attempted to peacefully deliver the letter asking Deen to meet with her and other Smithfield workers and was escorted out by security.
"We want to be able to cook for our families just like you do, but if you have had your finger cut off from working at Smithfield, you can’t" said former Smithfield worker Lenora Bailey who had been injured on the job and was subsequently fired. "We are just asking Paula to not support a company that is causing so many of our families to suffer. We want her to do the right thing. She should use her influence to ask the company to stop abusing us. "
The international human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, documented widespread dangerous conditions in two reports on the company's Tar Heel plant. A separate report by Research Associates of America found injuries are up in the plant 200 percent since 2003 based on government data.
As recently as May 25th of 2007, workers in Tar Heel were engaged in a fight to get clean drinking water for 90 workers in the Livestock department, where 32,000 hogs a day are herded into the massive plant. Workers filed a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Department last week alleging that they have no access to clean drinking water even as they work in searing hot temperatures. "Sometimes we wait up to three hours to get the water," says livestock worker Lois Burns, "one of our fellow employees collapsed this month after becoming dizzy. He had not been provided fresh water for six hours."
Roosevelt Smalley of the Shreveport Central Labor Council (AFL-CIO) is inviting community supporters to join in a "Smithfield (Tar Heel products) Free Fish Fry" following the vigil because he believes that what is happening to Smithfield's Tar Heel workers is a Shreveport issue. "Smithfield sells a lot of its Tar Heel products here in Shreveport and I just don’t see why Paula Deen won’t meet with the workers," said Smalley. "If she believes in families she should at least want to know about how working for Smithfield can affect workers' families since she is traveling around the country promoting the company's products. That only seems fair. As Dr. Martin Luther King said 'An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' "
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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.
