Grab that Pig by the Tail

The Beginnings

So it's 1992 and you're little old Tar Heel, NC. (Population 63.) The world's largest meat processing plant, owned and operated by Smithfield Foods, has just decided to call you home. Why did they pick you, little old Tar Heel? Well, you've got the land. You're in desperate need of economic development. There are few well connected citizens who could effectively protest such an environmentally unsound intrusion. And you're a town located in a Right to Work state with the lowest percentage (3%) of unionized workers in the country. You really are the perfect fit for the company that has thrown ethical and responsible business practices out the window in an effort to squeeze ever widening profit margins through the door.

The Smithfield Plant that's just come to town is huge. 32,000 hogs a day are processed. [What's involved in processing, you ask? Well, it ain't pretty. In fact, I urge you to read this amazing article published in Rolling Stone a couple of years ago that details the work of Smithfield and its huge, gross environmental impact--just don't eat beforehand.]

The Folks
$10/hour in Eastern NC is good pay. It better be. The work at the Smithfield Plant is back breaking. Literally. People who have worked or currently work at Smithfield more than likely know someone who's been hurt on the job or have been hurt themselves. Like Quincy Harvey. He's showing you one of his injuries in the pic here.

"At the Smithfield Plant I was a split saw operator. After all the guts were taken out of the hog, I had to cut it in half with what they call a split saw. It was about three and a half feet long, about 75 to 100 pounds. The line would move in front of you, and you would have to catch the hogs and cut them while the line was moving. I did that for six years.

After I'd been there about six years I complained to my supervisor about a shoulder ailment. Once I started complaining about working on that saw, they said I wasn’t doing the job good enough, so they took me off that job and put me on another job. And I was still complaining about my shoulder.

I went to the assistant superintendent and he told me, “You can go the [Smithfield] clinic, but it’s not work-related.” I said, “I didn’t say it was work-related. I just said my shoulder’s hurting, and I’ve been complaining about my shoulder for a while now.” He said, “Well you can go to the clinic, but it’s not work-related.” So, they sent me across the street to Smithfield clinic, and the doctor took me out of work for a week. Then after that week, I came back. I worked a couple days, my shoulder started hurting more, so they sent me back to the clinic. The doctor starts to get me X-rays, then an MRI. He found out I had a torn rotator cuff, so I went to Human Resources. They told me that since I went across the street, where they sent me, that it can’t be filed under workman’s comp. They said, 'Since you didn’t use our doctor, it’s not workman’s comp.' I was fired 13 weeks later."

So what good would a Union do Mr. Harvey and his counterparts? And aren't they bad for business in the long run? What about those American auto makers? This timely article from the Center for American Progress really sums up the importance of unions and their worker members to our society.

The Justice

There are 4,650 workers at the Smithfield Plant who are vulnerable to the huge imbalance of power that exists within the plant's confines. The socioeconomic hardship of the region and its people have long spelled good news for the plant and bad news for the workers. Labor is cheap and in no short supply. The company has consistently rejected the union advances of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UCFW), and has a long history of bullying its workforce into NO votes for the union as well. (Despite 8 of its other 13 U.S. plants being unionized.)

Twice, in 1994 and 1997, the workers at Smithfield voted on whether or not to unionize. Both times the vote was no--but there were such widespread reports of company influence and intimidation that the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in 2006 that another vote was necessary. The court said during organizing drives in 1994 and 1997, Smithfield confiscated union materials, spied on employees, threatened to freeze their wages, fire them and close the plant if the union was approved. Smithfield later agreed to pay $1.1 million in back wages, plus interest, to workers fired as part of the dispute.

In between this decision and the vote last week, a lot went down. There was a large boycott campaign of Smithfield products by the Union and its supporters [as an aside, I attended the Carrboro Town Council meeting last spring when the town became an official boycotter of Smithfield products--it was a surreal experience to be surrounded by such progressive politicians in NC] called Justice@Smithfield. In response, Smithfield filed a lawsuit under the RICO Act, basically accusing the union of criminal organizing practices. Just before the lawsuit went to trial, common ground was found on the bargaining table and the Union and Smithfield agreed to a secret ballot vote. (Smithfield didn't want dirty laundry health and safety inspections violations aired in a courtroom, the Union (less than satisfied with a secret ballot vote) wanted the workers who had long been organizing for a vote to have it.) Among the things agreed to: the Union would cease its Justice@Smithfield campaign, and its website detailing Smithfield atrocities was quickly dismantled. For the purposes of this blog post, drat. Read this for more info on the settlement that led to the vote.

On December 10-11, 2008, this time monitored by the National Labor Relations Board, the workers at Smithfield at their say. Vote: 2,041 to 1,879 to join the Union.

I'm loving that some of the workers at the plant said after the vote that if Obama could be President, anything was possible. Even a Union at the world's largest pork processing plant in little old Tarheel, NC.