Smithfield workers protest refusal to recognize MLK Day

For the second time in three months, workers at the Smithfield Packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina have had a partial work stoppage following a labor dispute between management and workers at the plant. According to the United Food and Commercial Union(UFCW), who has long tried to unionize the Smithfield plant, 500 workers missed work on Jan. 15 to protest the company's refusal to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a company holiday. Company officials were quick to note that the protesting workers represented only a fraction of the plant's 5,500 workers, but the UFCW claimed that the loss of labor cut daily production in half. Last week, Smithfield workers presented a petition with over 4,000 signatures asking the company to recognize Martin Luther King Day as a holiday. In reply to the petition, the company released a statement that said several years ago it told workers they had a choice between Easter and Martin Luther King Day. "You shouldn't be asked to choose between Jesus and Dr. King, a man who stood for our fight for humane working conditions," said Keith Ludlum, a hog driver at Smithfield. An estimated ninety percent of workers at the Tar Heel plant are people of color, the largest concentration of workers of color in North Carolina. Smithfield workers currently receive no time off or holiday pay for the holiday. Smithfield management threatening to demerit, dock pay, or fire workers who called in or walked off the job for the holiday. Despite the threats, employees called in sick or walked off the line to attend the dedication of a new Martin Luther King statue in nearby Fayetteville, North Carolina "Smithfield Packing has abused workers for years," says Justice at Smithfield Campaign director Gene Bruskin. "Legal rulings have affirmed that this company has assaulted workers, hurled racial epithets at them and intimidated them. The fact that the company is threatening to punish workers who want to commemorate Dr. King shows once again Smithfield's callous disregard for the dignity of its employees." Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was a close personal friend of Dr. King, spoke with Smithfield management and called on the company not to impose punitive measures. UFCW said it was unaware of any worker being disciplined for their participation but that it stands ready to defend workers at Smithfield. Last November several hundred workers walked off the job over an immigration-related dispute. In that dispute, the company reinstated workers that it fired over documentation discrepancies, giving them two months to clarify no-match social security numbers. Human Rights Watch has twice highlighted Smithfield's Tar Heel plant for abusive and inhumane working conditions in reports about the US meatpacking industry. The work at Smithfield is hard and dangerous. A recent report on injuries, based on OSHA data, found that injuries rose 200 percent at the tar heel plant since 2003. In 1997, employees lost a bitterly fought union drive in which workers of the plant attempted to unionize with the UFCW. In 2000, a National Labor Relations Board judge found that widespread company violations made the election unfree and unfair and ordered a new election. Ongoing lawsuits have thus far blocked a new election. "We want Smithfield to respect the dignity and human rights of its workers," said UFCW organizer Libby Manly. "Smithfield workers are determined to get a voice on the job one way or another." Smithfield is the nation's largest producer of pork with $11 billion of annual sales. Smithfield's Tar Heel plant is the world's largest pork processing plant, rendering 32,000 hogs a day.