meatpacking

  • Common Ground on the Kill Floor: Organizing Smithfield

    Organizing the union at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, was a bruising 16-year battle, the fight brought together African American, white, and Mexican immigrant workers, who were able to find common ground despite the company’s attempts to use racial division and immigration enforcement to try to defeat them.

  • Smithfield Wins a Union after 16-Year Struggle

    Nichele Fulmore, Mischa Gaus

    Forging a historic win for labor in the notoriously anti-union South, workers at the nation’s largest hog slaughterhouse won a 16-year battle to unionize their plant in December. . . .


    Yes
  • Smithfield Workers To Vote on Union

    Jane Slaughter

    In a surprise settlement, Smithfield Foods dropped its multimillion-dollar racketeering lawsuit against the United Food and Commercial Workers, Jobs with Justice, and the Change to Win federation October 27. The company agreed instead to a set of rules that will govern a vote on December 10 and 11 for union representation at its hog slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, North Carolina. . . .


    Yes
  • Muslim Workers Demand Time for Prayer at Meatpacking Plants

    Tiffany Ten Eyck

    Muslim workers at meatpacking plants owned by JBS Swift in Colorado and Nebraska walked out in September to demand time for prayer and dinner during their holy month of Ramadan. When the company agreed, other workers, largely Latino immigrants, led counter-protests, complaining that the Muslims were being favored. . . .


    Yes
  • Government, Industry Play the Numbers Game on Worker Safety in Meatpacking Plants

    Roger Horowitz

    In one of the most dangerous industries in America, injury rates were cut in half in one year. Is this possible? Only if you bear in mind the saying that “figures can lie and liars can figure.” . . .


    Yes