Thread: Smithfield Union Workers Walk Out, Protest Labor Screening P

Smithfield Union Workers Walk Out, Protest Labor Screening Process
POSTED: 3:16 pm EST November 16, 2006
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EST November 16, 2006

TAR HEEL, N.C. -- More than 300 workers, many of them Hispanic, walked out of a Smithfield Foods Inc. hog slaughtering plant Thursday, protesting a labor screening process and what they described as management intimidation and abuse.

"There's a long train of abuses in that plant really going back more than a dozen years," Gene Bruskin, a representative of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union who serves as the Smithfield campaign director, told The Associated Press. "Recently the activity in the plant has been increasing."

Bruskin said Smithfield officials have failed to address problems of sexual harassment, inappropriate firings and denial of workers compensation claims.

Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman said the company was only complying with a request from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to gather the names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and gender of workers at the plant. About 600 workers were found to have unverifiable information. The company fired about 75 people for providing false information, he said.

"This walkout -- which apparently was instigated by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union -- is totally unjustified," Pittman said. "If Smithfield were to do what the union is calling for, we would be breaking federal law by knowingly employing undocumented workers. The union should stop trying to pressure Smithfield to break the law."

The plant, about 25 miles south of Fayetteville, employees 5,000 workers and slaughters up to 34,000 hogs a day.

Many of the workers who left their jobs during Thursday's morning shift could be heard chanting the word "justice" in Spanish. Bruskin said workers in later shifts planned to continue the walkouts.

Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods is the world's largest pork processor and hog producer. The Tar Heel facility is considered the largest pork-processing plant in the world.
http://www.wral.com/news/10337601/detai ... l&psp=news

information@smithfieldfoods.com

Smithfield Packing
15855 NC Highway 87 W
Tar Heel, NC 28392
(910) 872-0032
_________________

http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/Career/C ... efault.asp

Corporate Office

Smithfield Foods, Inc
200 Commerce Street
Smithfield, VA 23430
757-365-3000
888-366-6767


Murphy-Brown LLC
P.O. Box 487
Warsaw, NC 28398
Phone:910-296-1800
Fax:910-296-1675
HR Phone:910-296-1800
HR Fax:910-296-6166


Murphy-Brown LLC
2822 Highway 24 West
Warsaw, NC 28398
Phone:910-293-3434
Fax:910-293-7551
HR Phone:910-293-3434
HR Fax:910-293-3199

Looks like a good place for a counter protest gang

Sounds like a good time to start eating more beef from local ranchers!

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

Looks like a good place for a counter protest gang

It looks like things are starting to take hold. Maybe we are going to get some interior enforcement. I think we may send some really tough enforcement coming down the pike in order to grease us up for an amnesty. They think we will all feel better about it if we believe they are cracking down.

I think an e-mail campaign to Smithfield as well as a pork shopping spree are in order.

We should take a few days to a week to e-mail and call them, thanking them for FINALLY doing the right thing, and then we should do a REVERSE boycott and STOCK UP on Smithfield products.

If we put this out to ALL our groups we could make a difference.

http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/Career/C ... efault.asp

The company should sue the Union for conspiracy to violate U.S. Immigration Law and then report the same Union to the Department of Homeland Security.

It looks to be a good place for a Few Buses and several ICE agents to be at. If and when my Employers asks about My Social Security number. I have no problem giving it or anything else. The only people that do. Are people that have something to hide.

OK team lets start with a email/call and mail tsunami like we did with General Mills. After that we'll see what we can line up. I'll work on getting address and phone numbers for the Tarhell plant in the morning. I go by it several times a month going to Fayetteville.
JP this might be a good front page article.

Originally Posted by Charlesoakisland

OK team lets start with a email/call and mail tsunami like we did with General Mills. After that we'll see what we can line up. I'll work on getting address and phone numbers for the Tarhell plant in the morning. I go by it several times a month going to Fayetteville.
JP this might be a good front page article.

I'm in

.