Workers who walked off the job meet with Smithfield management

By ERIN GARTNER
Associated Press Writer

TAR HEEL, N.C.
A small group of employees representing workers who walked off jobs at a Smithfield Foods Inc. slaughterhouse met Tuesday with company officials, who insisted they must fire workers who can't prove they have the legal right to work in the United States.

About 1,000 nonunion workers, mostly Hispanic, walked off the job at the world's largest hog processing plant last week, upset the company fired workers it said provided false identification information.

The employees who walked off returned to work over the weekend after the company agreed to rehire the fired workers and give them 60 days to provide proper identification documents.

But the company said it stressed during Tuesday's two-hour meeting with about 20 workers that it could not keep any illegal immigrants on the payroll.

"Unless they can provide the (documents), we will have to terminate them," said company spokesman Dennis Pittman. "They don't like it, but they understand it now. We would prefer to have a legal way to keep these people here."

The walkout began Thursday, spurred on by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which claimed the job action shut down the mammoth plant. The company said the walkout only slowed production at the operation 25 miles south of Fayetteville where Smithfield slaughters up to 32,000 hogs a day.

The workers have said they are upset with the company's decision to gather the names, Social Security numbers, birth dates and gender of workers at the plant. Smithfield said the effort was aimed at assuring federal officials the plant does not knowingly employ undocumented workers.

About 500 to 600 workers were found to have unverifiable information, the company said. About 50 were fired for providing false information.

The walkout ended Saturday after Smithfield representatives met with Rev. Carlos N. Arce, a Roman Catholic priest who helped broker the temporary settlement. Arce said after Tuesday's meeting the company has yet to offer a "permanent solution to the problem."

"The workers came and they wanted to negotiate," Arce said. "The company said this wasn't a meeting to negotiate anything. It was only for information."

The company said Tuesday's meeting was not with the union, which has tried for years to organize the plant's 5,000 employees and lost organizing elections in 1994 and 1997.

"They're using immigration as an intimidation tool against workers who are finally standing up for their rights," said Eduardo Pena, a coordinator for the union, which has long complained about what it contends are unsafe working conditions at the plant.

Shares of Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods, the world's largest pork processor, closed down 23 cents at $26.77 in trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ ... /611212555