Labor leaders, civil rights officials and State Senator Nan Orrock joined local clergy in Atlanta on May 3rd for a prayerful protest against conditions at Smithfield's Tar Heel, NC plant.
Focused on Smithfield spokeswoman and celebrity chef Paula Deen, the event was held at the Metropolitan Cooking an Entertaining Show where Deen was headlining a series of appearances. A solemn "Prayers for Paula" vigil in front of Smithfield's display booth implored Paula to show compassion for the injured, downtrodden and abused workers in Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant.
Outside the venue, demonstrators greeted event participants with a lively protest, holding up signs with Paula Deen's face that read: You Have the Power to End the Abuse.”
In addition, Atlanta-area supporters confronted Paula Deen on the mainstage Saturday afternoon, delivering a letter from Tar Heel workers requesting a meeting with the chef. The letter recounts some of the terrible injuries that workers have been forced to endure:
Many have paid a painful price for working at Smithfield in Tar Heel . Sometimes workers are fired when they are badly injured and then face high, ongoing medical bills it makes it hard to support their families. The health care we receive at Smithfield for our injuries is usually geared to getting us right back on the line, not on helping us get better for the long term. Many workers are unfairly denied workers compensation for injuries on the job. So when you make public statements about our working conditions, like, "It's called work for a reason. It's not called play," we believe that you may have been misled about what we are asking for.
Deen handed the letter to her son, promising read it after her show.
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.
