SMITHFIELD WORKERS FINALLY WIN UNION: After 16 long years, Smithfield
workers finally got their union Thursday. “We are thrilled,” said Ann
Simmons, a veteran of 13 years at the Smithfield Packing plant in Tar
Heel, North Carolina. “This moment has been a long time coming. We stuck
together, and now we have a say on the job.” The 2041 to 1879 vote to
join the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW)
puts an end to a 16-year battle by workers to organize that included a
history of worker intimidation and legal maneuvering by Smithfield and
worker solidarity campaigns in DC and dozens of other cities across the
country. “This was a big election for our union,” UFCW Local 400
President C. James Lowthers told UNION CITY! Friday. “It is always good
to see the success of new strategies within UFCW and the labor movement
to improve the lives of workers.” “This is a great victory for the Tar
Heel workers,” says UFCW Director of Organizing Pat O’Neill. “I know
they are looking forward to sitting down at the bargaining table with
Smithfield to negotiate a contract.” Workers at 26 Smithfield-owned
facilities around the country already have UFCW representation.
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Worker intimidation is putting it mildly. :)

Typically, employees at these southern food processing plants are not
organizing so much for substantial wage increases, but for safer working
conditions and for decent treatment as human beings.

About 16 years ago in North Carolina, 25 workers were killed and another
50 were severely injured in a chicken processing plant fire. The doors
of the plant were padlocked once the workers were inside at their
stations on their shifts. The plant owners claimed they padlocked the
doors to prevent vandalism and theft.

When I was a college kid working summer jobs in New Haven, I was lucky
enough to get employment at the Shick Razor Company in Milford. Big
plant, no theft. Company policy was to sell packs of razor blades to
employees at a nickel a pack, the actual cost in those days of manufacture.