For immediate release 8/28/07 Contact: Leila McDowell 202 728 1829
HARRY BELAFONTE CALLS ON SMITHFIELD PACKING TO MEET WITH WORKERS AND UNION Supports demonstration at shareholders meeting weds. august 29
Rally: 12noon First Baptist Church, 727 Scotland St,
Demonstration and delivery of petitions and blown up letter:
2:15pm The Lodge of Williamsburg, 310 South England Street
Large puppets, colorful signs, hundreds to march through Colonial Williamsburg
Harry Belafonte adds his name today to those of Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser, Judge Greg Mathis, Reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, the Mexican American Political Association and scores of other prominent leaders and groups in a letter that will be personally delivered to Smithfield Foods executives by workers and representatives of national and state organizations.
Hundreds of people will converge on Smithfield's annual shareholders meeting in Williamsburg to petition the company to meet with workers and the union to develop a fair process for the workers to decide on unionization. Workers from the behemoth Smithfield plant in Tar Heel will deliver thousands of signatures demanding the protection of a union contract. The signatures, gathered despite intimidation and threats from supervisors, represent the first time that workers at the Tar Heel plant have circulated petitions to demand a fair process to choose a union that will be free of the legal violations Smithfield has committed in the past. .
In support of the workers, the city of Boston, Massachusetts also voted to drop any procurement of Smithfield pork from the Tar Heel plant and urged supermarkets in the area to halt sales. Several surrounding cities passed similar resolutions. Product checks of area supermarkets reveal that several Boston supermarket chains have discontinued the items. In North Carolina, product checks of Harris Teeter - the chain targeted by religious leaders for carrying Smithfield pork from Tar Heel -- revealed that the product is no longer stocked in most stores.
Smithfield workers at the world's largest pork processing plant have been fighting for a union for 12 years. Two previous NLRB elections at the plant resulted in over 50 violations of the law by the company according to the Federal Court of Appeals. In various legal rulings, the company was found to have assaulted, intimidated, threatened, illegally fired and used racial epithets against workers during the elections. Over ten years, after the initial violations, the court ordered the company to pay over one million dollars in back wages and reinstate the workers illegally fired. Workers want the company to sit down with them and the union to develop a process that can safeguard their democratic right to choose without having to endure another decade of legal rulings devoid of any meaningful sanctions should the company violate the law again.
Human Rights Watch has documented widespread dangerous conditions at the plant in two reports and OSHA data reveals injuries increased 200 percent between 2003 and 2006. "This is a fight about real families and real lives. It's about workers who are tired of being injured and then discarded, unable to work again or support their families," Barber said.
The organizations will demonstrate at the meeting with large puppets, special songs and large signs and attempt to deliver the workers' petitions and a blown up letter signed by Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and hundreds of others demanding the company sit down with the workers and the union. Petitions signed by Smithfield workers around the world will also be given to the CEO and Chairman of Smithfield Foods.
For information, copies of the resolutions and to speak with workers and leaders of the march contact Leila McDowell at 202 728 1829.
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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.
