Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world, the fourth largest turkey processor and fifth largest beef processor in the U.S." It is headquartered in the town of Smithfield, Virginia, but its operations stretch across the United States, Mexico, and much of Europe.

U.S. Operations

Smithfield operates over 40 pork processing plants under the names of Smithfield, John Morrell, Patrick Cudahy, Farmland Foods, Gwaltney, Cumberland Gap, Lykes, Cook's, Stefano's, and more.

Smithfield slaughters hogs at seven plants in the U.S. (five in the Midwest and two in the Southeast), with a current slaughter capacity of 101,000 hogs per day." The largest of these facilities is in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where approximately 5,500 workers slaughter and process 32,000 hogs a day.

Smithfield raises hogs under its Murphy-Brown subsidiary. " It is the largest hog producer in the world, and each year Smithfield raises 14.2 million directly-owned hogs for slaughter, as well as another 1.4 million hogs that are produced under joint ventures." In the U.S., Smithfield raises approximately 53% of the hogs it processes, and internationally the percentage is even higher almost two thirds of the hogs slaughtered by Smithfield are company-owned.

Smithfield is the fifth largest beef processor in the U.S., with beef plants operating under the names of Moyer, Packerland and Sunland." The company is also part of a joint venture that operates a cattle feedlot with a capacity of over 800,000 head of cattle that are raised for slaughter; this is the largest commercial cattle feeding operation in the U.S.

Through a joint venture, Smithfield is the fourth largest turkey processor in the world. The company is in the process of acquiring ConAgra's Butterball Turkey plants; upon completion of this purchase, Smithfield will be the country's largest turkey processor.

International

Smithfield owns meat-processing plants in Poland (Animex), Romania (Contim), France (Jean Caby), and the United Kingdom (Smithfield Foods, Ltd. UK), and operates joint ventures in Mexico (Norson), China (Maverick), and Romania. " Smithfield also owns 23% of Campofrio, one of Europe's largest meat processors, headquartered in Madrid, and as part of a joint venture, Smithfield purchased Sara Lee's European assets in August 2006." Based in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, Sara Lee's European meats business has facilities in France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, and employs about 4,500 people.

Tar Heel Plant

In the early 1990s, Smithfield opened its 975,000 square foot pork slaughter plant in the town of Tar Heel, in Bladen County, North Carolina. This facility is now the single largest pork processing plant in the world." The approximately 5,500 workers kill and cut up 32,000 hogs per day-that is 16,000 hogs per 8-hour shift, 2,000 per hour, 33 hogs every minute--one every 2 seconds.

Products that are produced at Tar Heel include Smithfield Pork Chops and Pork Loins, Lean Generation products, and Smithfield Fresh Ground Pork. Bacon is processed at a near-by facility, in Wilson, NC.

Employees

As of April 2006, Smithfield had approximately 52,500 total employees, 22,500 of whom are covered by collective bargaining agreements. At Smithfield's pork plants, 18,000 of the approximately 31,800 employees are unionized-about 56%.

Sales

In fiscal year 2006, Smithfield reported sales of $11.4 Billion dollars.
"Net profits were $172.7 million dollars."

In fiscal year 2005, Smithfield's sales were $11.2 Billion dollars, and profits were $296.2 million dollars.

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Are there products from Smithfield Packing in my community Supermarket?
Smithfield Foods produces many products in the US under a variety of names. Many of these products are produced at union plants where workers are treated with respect and dignity. If you are interested in identifying products that are produced at the Smithfield Packing Tar Heel plant, here is how you can do that. While this is not a complete list, it is a good sampling. If you find product in your local supermarket please let us know and feel free to tell your supermarket manager that it concerns you that products being produced under inhumane conditions are being sold in your community.

Download the document to Check the products

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What do you get with a union contract? Protection from being unfairly fired. That's what happened to Tomas Hernandez, a twelve year employee at Smithfield in Landover Maryland. Mr. Hernandez had an impeccable work record, and was an active member of UFCW Local 27.

When Smithfield dismissed him on trumped up charges, he knew the union would be behind him. Local 27 took Smithfield to arbitration, and the arbitrator agreed with the union, finding that Smithfield had wrongfully terminated Mr. Hernandez and ordering Smithfield to reinstate him to his job with back pay.

What happens when workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel are wrongfully fired? Without a union contract, the company can dismiss them for nearly any reason they wish. Over the years, when workers have been injured on the job, they have found themselves quickly fired and then denied workers' compensation.

Isn't it time that Smithfield workers in North Carolina were treated with the same respect and dignity as Smithfield workers in Maryland?

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