Thread: Smithfield Pork Plant in the News again!

From the Thursday, January 11, 2007, Raleigh The News&Observer.

Pork packers threaten walkout

Petition calls for paid MLK holiday

BY KRISTIN COLLINS
STAFF WRITER

Smithfield Packing, the giant pork plant in Bladen County, is facing the possibility of its second worker walkout in two months.

I'm sure we all remember the first walkout, which came about when the company released illegal immigrants that had social security numbers that didn't match. Also, as I'm sure you all remember, the plant caved and allowed those released illegals to come back to work. To this day I'm still not sure if one single illegal was fired due because of their use of a false social security numbers or identity theft.

Hundreds of workers will either skip work or walk out in protest Monday, because the company refused a request to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday, say workers and organizers of a union drive at the plant.

Smithfield should have never caved on the illegal immigrant issue because it empowered the workers and the union. They now know how to get what they want - a walkout!

If it happens, it would come on the heels of a November walkout at the Tar Heel plant, which is thw world's largest pork processing facility with 5,000 employees.

The United Food and Comercial Workers Union has been trying to unionize workers there for more than a decade. In the first walkout, union supporters were protesting firings and poor working conditions. They slowed production for a day before returing to work.

Mostly they were protesting the firing of illegal immigrants.

This week, workers presented plant managers with a petition Tuesday asking for a paid holiday on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is Monday. Company officials refused, angering workers.

Leonard Walker, and 11-year plant employee, said Wednesday that he was planning to skip work Monday and that several hundred of his co-workers would do the same.

He said he couldn't give more details because "we don't want Smithfield to know too much about it."

Dennis Pittman, the plant's human resources directer, said the company offers eight paid holidays. He said employees voted five years ago on whether they wanted to take off Easter or Martin Luther King Jr. Day. They voted overwhelmingly for Easter.

"If we'd had more notice, we could have switched it. We don't care if they work Martin Luther Kind Day or Easter," Pittman said. "But we've got hogs scheduled to come in."

Switching the holiday is not their plan, they want ANOTHER paid holiday. Furthermore, they now know how to get what they want. Now, are you going to fire those that don't show up or are you going to sweep this under the rug like you did the illegal immigrant firings?

Union organizer Eduardo Pena, who was outside the plant Wednesday talking to employees, said the company should recognize King's holiday becase many of its workers are black.

Note the surname.

He said he had talked to many workers who were offended that the company refused to accept their petition, which was signed by hundreds. Pena also said many workers told him they planned to either skip work or walk out in protest on Monday.

The union helped organize an event Monday in honor of King and Cesar Chavez, a former labor leader among farm workers. They say many of the employees who don't go to work will attend that event.

Notice how the union and Pena did a tidy job of tieing the Latino's, many of which are illegal, and the African-Americans together? Personally, I think that is a very smart plan on part of Pena and the union to align their forces.

Staff writer Kristin Collins
can be reached at 829-4881
or kcollins@newsobserver.com[b]

Note: The comments in italics are my own. Additionally, I typed the article because I was unable to find an internet source link (N&O not responsible for typing mistakes).

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/531115.html

Next they'll want a paid day off for Cinco De Mayo.

Thanks for providing the link, John.

They better watch what they are doing.
In this area, after so much striking, taking off for whatever they want...all the factories left the area.

The American citizens that got jobs there after the raids, are slitting their own throats over this.

I never got off for MLK day, Geo. Washington or Abe Lincoln day...birthday, nothing. Christmas and New Years....that was all. We didn't even have sick days!

Once the Union got into where I worked, they think they can just stand around now and complain, without working...thinking the Union will fight to keep their jobs! They still act that way.

where is the ICE raid on this place?
as much as its made national news, you would think they know these illegals are there and with the PbS special on the place a month ago, you would think they would have gone in there already

“. . . when the farm workers strike and their strike is successful, the employers go to Mexico and have unlimited, unrestricted use of illegal alien strikebreakers to break the strike. And, for over 30 years, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has looked the other way and assisted in the strikebreaking. I do not remember one single instance in 30 years where the Immigration Service has removed strikebreakers. . . .The employers use professional smugglers to recruit and transport human contraband across the Mexican border for the specific act of strikebreaking . . .” Cesar Chavez

I could care less about smithfiled. I refuse to buy their products.

http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs ... 004/news01

Smithfield workers told to work MLK Day

Tar Heel | Workers at a massive Smithfield Foods Inc. hog slaughterhouse will be docked a day's pay and could be disciplined if they skip work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, company and union officials said Thursday.

Some of the plant's 5,000 workers met with company officials Thursday and were asked to inform other employees Monday would be treated as a normal work day, Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman said.

The meeting was called after hundreds of workers vowed to walk off the job or stay home in protest of the company's refusal to offer Monday as a paid holiday. The effort is being supported by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has tried unsuccessfully to organize the plant for more than a decade.

The plant, located about 65 miles northwest of Wilmington, is considered the largest hog processing plant in the world.

Union organizers said Smithfield officials refused to accept a petition signed by 4,000 plant workers who supported the holiday designation.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

No more Smithfield here either.

I wonder if any of their workers observed the "Day Without an Illegal Immigrant." If so, did they face the threat of disciplinary action?

Workers at a massive Smithfield Foods Inc. hog slaughterhouse will be docked a day's pay and could be disciplined if they skip work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, company and union officials said Thursday.

I'm sure this has them scared silly.

Originally Posted by MW

Workers at a massive Smithfield Foods Inc. hog slaughterhouse will be docked a day's pay and could be disciplined if they skip work on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, company and union officials said Thursday.

I'm sure this has them scared silly.

They'll soon be up to their armpits in swine. That will be quite an incentive. My recommendation is truck the hogs to D.C. and turn them loose in Congress.