Smithfield Agrees To Talk to Union After Big Rally at Annual Meeting

— Mark Brenner

Photo: UFCW.

A boisterous crowd of more than 1,000 meatpacking workers and supporters was on hand to greet Smithfield Food shareholders at their annual meeting August 29 in Williamsburg, Virginia. Demonstrators called on Smithfield executives to respect the organizing drive by the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) at the company’s Tar Heel, North Carolina pork processing plant. The Tar Heel facility is the largest plant of its kind in the world, employing over 5,000 workers.

The shareholder demonstration was part of a coordinated campaign by the UFCW—including national consumer pressure, in-plant activity, and community outreach through a union-sponsored workers center. This multi-pronged approach was adopted after the union suffered two election defeats at Smithfield in the 1990s.

Conflict in the plant has been at a fever pitch over the past year. In November 2006, several hundred workers staged a two-day wildcat strike after the company fired dozens of workers whose social security numbers did not match federal records. In January, hundreds of workers stayed away from work in honor of Martin Luther King day—a holiday the company did not recognize. That same month 21 immigrant workers were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, in what many believe was retaliation for union activity.

Company officials are definitely feeling the heat. Smithfield opened up talks with the union shortly after the shareholder meeting.

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