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For immediate release 12/10/07 From the Smithfield Justice Campaign The ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit does not negate Smithfield's unconscionable pattern of flouting the law in other cases nor its appalling actions against workers of QSI, its private cleaning contractor, during an employee walk out in November, 2003. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found that during the walkout, workers were assaulted and intimidated by Smithfield's private police. One employee was arrested and others were threatened with arrest by federal immigration authorities. The facts disclosed at the NLRB trial revealed that the work of the cleaning employees could be dangerous and had already resulted in numerous accidents over the years involving the loss of life and limbs, cuts, bruises and hot water and chemical burns. When Smithfield fired a supervisor whom workers felt had helped in their attempts to alleviate demeaning and abusive work conditions, the employees walked out. The protest resulted in the egregious conduct by Smithfield's private police force including assaults and intimidation. Yet in the company's consistent pattern of disrespect for the rights and dignity of its workers, Smithfield admitted no wrong doing. However, a unanimous NLRB panel decision upheld a ruling by an administrative law judge that found QSI unlawfully discharged 14 workers, and along with Smithfield, assaulted workers, threatened them with arrest by immigration officials, and caused a worker to be falsely arrested for taking collective action at the Tar Heel plant. Following the NLRB ruling, Smithfield and QSI appealed the Board decision and order to the federal court of appeals. Before the appeals court ruling, QSI settled the case with the NLRB and paid back wages for firing workers as a result of the walkout. The court of appeals reversed the NLRB decision with respect to Smithfield's actions toward QSI's employees. The appeals court held that the walkout was not protected as it was an "unreasonable means of protest" because of Smithfield's loss of production. Because the court held the walkout unprotected, it had no authority to examine Smithfield's treatment of the QSI employees. Not withstanding the QSI case, Smithfield's pattern of worker abuse is clear. In other legal rulings, Smithfield was found to have assaulted, intimidated, threatened and illegally fired its employees advocating for better working conditions. Last year, the Federal Appeals Court ordered that Smithfield pay 1.5 million dollars in back wages and reinstate workers it had illegally fired during the elections in 1994 and 1997. Human Rights Watch issued two reports in 2000 and 2005 documenting widespread dangerous work conditions at the plant. Injuries at the plant went up 200 percent from 2003 to 2006 according to OSHA reports based on company data. Smithfield continues to blatantly flout the democratic rights of its Tar Heel employees to free choice. A majority of workers signed petitions this summer asking for a union and a free and fair process to vote. Instead, Smithfield walked away from negotiations with the union refusing to agree to any process in which the company would be barred from coercing, intimidating and threatening workers during the electoral process. Smithfield continues to call for the same process of elections that were held in 1994 and 1997, the results of which are invalid due to the massive violations of the law by the company as found by the NLRB and the Federal Appeals Court. Without neutrality and meaningful sanctions should the company again break the law, the workers say that voting in a Smithfield election is like "voting under a dictatorship." Smithfield has demonstrated time and again its willingness to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees through appeals to successfully deny and/or delay justice for its employees. The Federal Appeals Court ruling on the elections of 1994 and 1997 that upheld the workers' charges of massive violations of the law by Smithfield, for example, took twelve years. Smithfield workers want to contribute to the creation of a prosperous and profitable plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina but one where their rights and dignity are respected. They want a safe workplace, a free, fair and democratic process with which to make their voices heard and the protection of a union contract. The Smithfield Justice Campaign is a coalition of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, labor, church, civil rights, immigrant rights and other organizations supporting the workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, North Carolina.
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