City of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Policy Order Resolution O-17
IN CITY COUNCIL
COUNCILLOR DECKER
COUNCILLOR SULLIVAN
VICE MAYOR TOOMEY
COUNCILLOR GALLUCCIO
June 4, 2007
WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge is committed to the right of all workers to have dignity in their lives, safe conditions at work, a living wage, and health benefits, and supports responsible employers who follow the law and treat their workers fairly; and
WHEREAS: 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.; and
WHEREAS: The largest of Smithfield’s facilities is in Tar Heel, North Carolina, where approximately 5,500 workers slaughter and process 32,000 hogs a day; and
WHEREAS: Smithfield Foods has created an environment of intimidation, racial tension, fear and sometimes, violence, for workers who desperately want a voice on the job. The company in Tar Heel, N.C., has been found liable of physically assaulting workers, threatening bodily harm, and causing the false arrest of workers for exercising their legal rights; [*] and
WHEREAS: The right to form trade unions has been recognized as a Human Right under the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet it has been repeatedly ignored by Smithfield Foods. From the first attempt to organize in 1993 through today, Smithfield has met workers' attempts to organize with tactics that include racism, violence, and intimidation; now therefore be it
ORDERED: That this City Council go on record in support of the workers at Smithfield processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina in their struggle for dignity, fair wages and safe working conditions, and their right to organize into a union; and be it further
ORDERED: That the City Clerk be and hereby is requested to forward a suitably engrossed copy of this resolution to Chairman Joseph Luter and CEO Larry Pope, Smithfield Foods, Inc. and the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union on behalf of the entire City Council.
*Update from Justice@Smithfield Campaign: December, 2007 federal 4th circuit appeals court ruled that Smithfield's arrest of and assault on QSI cleaning contractor employee did not violate labor law because employees' walkout was unreasonable means of protest and therefore unprotected. In 2006, another federal appeals court ruled that Smithfield's assault and arrest of its own worker and threats against workers did violated federal labor law.
Josh Noland and Stella Pleak at mayor's office
Mayor Ken Reeves shows his support
Speaking to Council
Speaking to Council
Congradulated by Mr.Omar Bantar, Mayor Reeves'
Exective Assistant
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.
O-17
