For immediate release 6/26/07 Contact: Leila McDowell 202 728 1829
PAULA DEEN STIRS CONTROVERSY IN CHARLOTTE
Nation's only African American Presidential Commission Master Chef asks Deen to end Smithfield partnership
Huge puppet, Paula Deen songs, as families of Smithfield workers attempt to deliver massive letter to celebrity chef in Charlotte
Saturday, June 30th Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte
A huge puppet of a pig representing the Smithfield company, children and families of Smithfield workers from North Carolina and church members singing special songs about Paula will attempt to deliver a huge letter to celebrity Chef Paula Deen asking for her to meet with the workers and end her partnership with the world's largest pork plant implicated in abuse of its employees. They will read a letter from the nation's only African American Presidential Commission master chef Talli Counsel who cooked for two US presidents. He has written an open letter asking Deen to end her Smithfield endorsement.
The marchers will attempt to enter the Auditorium where Paula is performing on a Smithfield sponsored tour to give her the letter. It is the third time that the workers have tried to get Paula to accept a letter from them, Michael Moore style, as they follow her around the country trying to get her to talk with them. "Why won't she just sit down and listen?" asked Smithfield, Tar Heelworker Ronnie Ann Simmons," We are fans of hers, we are suffering and she is partnering with the company that is causing injury and pain to thousands of families where I work. She has suffered in her life too. We are sure if she knew the truth she would stop."
Earlier the North Carolina General State Baptist Convention sent a letter to the celebrity chef asking her to end her partnership and meet. She has not responded. " Our members have voiced their concerns when they saw your picture on Smithfield products at their local grocery stores. They don't believe that the Paula Deen they so love would endorse products packaged with worker abuse if she knew the amount of pain and suffering inflicted to workers and their families," said the letter signed by Reverend Greg Moss, president of the Convention and pastor of the St. Paul Baptist Church in Charlotte.
Smithfield has been found in various legal rulings to have assaulted, used racial epithets, intimidated and illegally fired its workers at its largest plant. Two reports by Human Rights Watch have condemned the company for widespread abuses at its Tar Heel plant.
For more information contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829 or ReverendClaude Forehand 704 224 3550.
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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.
