Contact Isabell Moore 910.736.7048
Marc Goumbri 202-223-3111 Ext. 1451
"CALLING" FOR JUSTICE RALLY ASKS HARRIS TEETER TO REMOVE SMITHFIELD TAR HEEL PORK: A HIGH TECH CELL PHONE PROTEST IN ASHEVILLE
Since They Are Not Allowed on the Property, Community Members will stand outside Harris Teeter's Asheville Location and Call the Store and Corporate Headquarters
WHAT: Asheville area students, clergy, immigrants' rights advocates, civil rights leaders "call" on Harris Teeter supermarkets to take Smithfield Tar Heel pork off their shelves. Participants will phone the Hendersonville Road store and Harris Teeter's headquarters, holding large cell phone placards, encouraging customers to make calls, and even passing out free "Justice at Smithfield" ringtones.
WHO: Asheville area students, religious leaders, civil and immigrant rights groups, and consumers.
Harris Teeter carries pork 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.
For months, concerned community members have been calling on Harris Teeter to remove Smithfield Tar Heel pork. In March, supporters of Smithfield workers rallied at sixteen Harris Teeter Locations throughout the Southeast. On Saturday, June 16th, clergy, community members and civil and immigrants' rights advocates will gather in Charlotte for a Pre-Father's Day prayer vigil at a Harris Teeter there, and a march to the home of the president of Harris Teeter.
"Since we cannot go on Harris Teeter's property to share our concerns we plan to make use of cell phones to be sure both the store and corporate headquarters know that we are there," says Tyrone Greenlee, director of Christians for a United Community in Asheville. "Many of us will be going to Charlotte for the Pre-Father's Day Rally June 16th, but before that we wanted to give Harris Teeter another chance to do the right thing for workers in our state."
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.
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.
