Contact Leila McDowell at 202-306-7947 or The First Baptist Church in Fayetteville at 910-483-6505
YEAR LONG EFFORT WINS SMITHFIELD WORKERS PAID KING HOLIDAY
MARTIN LUTHER KING EVENT WILL ADOPT A UNITY THEME AND HONOR DR. KING AND RENOWNED HISPANIC CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER CESAR CHAVEZ
WHEN: Monday, January 21, 2008 11:00 a.m..
WHERE: First Baptist Church 302 Moore Street Fayetteville
It took a year, but this Martin Luther King holiday workers at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel, the world's largest pork processing facility, will celebrate his legacy with a paid holiday. Last year, Smithfield was forced to cut production when workers braved penalties to walk out or stay home in protest of the company's refusal to grant them the opportunity to honor the civil rights leader. Thousands had signed petitions asking for the holiday and a group of North Carolina clergy published an open letter in The Fayetteville Observer urging the company to "heal the wounds of injustice against the workers and recognize the holiday" Reverend Jesse Jackson personally called the company to ask that the workers not be penalized instead Smithfield threatened to fire some and penalized others for not showing up for work. But this holiday, the company relented and on Monday, January 21st, Smithfield will become North Carolina's largest private sector employer recognizing the holiday.
"Dr. King stood for workers rights and if he were alive today, we know he would be fighting with us to help stop the abuse and make conditions better at the plant." said Julia McMillian, a Smithfield worker at Tar Heel. "We know that he would appreciate this victory that we fought for."
Legal rulings have affirmed that Smithfield in Tar Heel has assaulted, illegally fired, threatened, intimidated and hurled racial epithets at workers. The company was condemned in two Human Rights Watch reports in 2000 and 2005 for widespread, dangerous working conditions. A recent report on injuries, based on company data given to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, found that injuries rose 200 percent from 2003 to 2006.
For more information contact The First Baptist Church 910-483-6505 or The Eastern North Carolina Worker Center 910-739-4555.
To interview workers contact Leila McDowell at 202 306 7947.
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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.
