Smithfield Workers To Meet with Presidential Candidate Senator John Edwards
Senator Edwards will call on company to give workers the right to organize
Smithfield elections, marred with violence, intimidation, threats and other unlawful acts by the company demonstrate the need for the Senate to pass the Employee Free Choice Act this week
WHEN: Thursday, June 21st Press Availability 10:30am
WHERE: John Edwards for President Headquarters, 410 Market Suite 400Chapel Hill, NC
WHO: Smithfield workers and Senator John Edwards
BACKGROUND: Smithfield has held two elections for a union at its Tar Heel plant both of which were thrown out by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Following the 1994 elections and a NLRB complaint, Smithfield promised in writing to hold free and fair elections. The 1997 elections were even worse. The company was found to have assaulted people, intimidated, used racial epithets against, threatened and illegally fired workers. The company was recently forced to rehire and pay 1.5 million dollars in back pay to those it had illegally fired by the DC Court of Appeals which upheld the NLRB ruling finding over 50 violations of the law. A Smithfield election at a neighboring plant in Wilson, North Carolina was similarly thrown out after the NLRB found the company committed numerous violations. The Employee Free Choice Act, being voted on this week, would allow alternatives to NLRB elections for determining workers' majority choice that remove a company's ability to intimidate workers during the election process. Human Rights Watch has released two reports documenting widespread abuse of workers at the Smithfield, Tar Heel plant and a recent report based on OSHA data, found that injuries at the plant are up 200 percent since 2003. Senator Edwards will meet with workers to discuss their struggles and how we can lift up working Americans.
For information contact Colleen Murray 919 636 3203 (John Edwards for President) or Leila McDowell 202 728 1829 (Smithfield Justice Campaign)
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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.
