The following article appeared Nov. 21 on pslweb.org.
In the latest development in the workers’ struggle against Smithfield Packing Company—one of the wealthiest meat producers in the world—1,000 workers walked out of the Tar Heel, North Carolina, pork processing plant on Thursday, Nov. 16. The walkout continued through Friday.
The walkout was sparked by the firing of 75 immigrant workers who, according to Smithfield, provided false Social Security numbers when applying for jobs.
The workers participating in the walkout—mostly Latino and African American—protested in front of the plant. Plant operations slowed down considerably. Protesting workers blocked access to the plant, preventing trucks from making deliveries.
This is part of an ongoing struggle to fight against terrible working conditions and exploitation at Smithfield. This struggle started over a decade ago, when the workers first attempted to organize a union in 1994.
Smithfield’s anti-worker crimes
The Tar Heel plant is the largest pork-processing plant in the world. At the plant, some 5,500 workers process 32,000 pigs each day.
The plant is owned by Smithfield Packing Company, which is a subsidiary of Smithfield Foods, the largest hog producer in the world. Joe Luter III, the chairman of Smithfield Foods, sits on the executive committee and board of directors of the American Meat Institute. The members of the AMI control 70 percent of all U.S. beef, poultry, pork and veal produced for the national market.
The meat industry is big business. In 2005, the total value of meat products in the United States was over $5.9 billion dollars. The annual worldwide revenue of Smithfield Foods is a whopping $11 billion.
But in order for Smithfield’s capitalist bosses to keep massive profits flowing, the workers must produce and distribute to their buyers the largest amount of meat products as quickly as possible.
This results in constant speed-ups of the production lines. Pigs travel down the processing line at a rate of one every 3.5 seconds. That is 8,000 pigs each day per line.
Having to work so hectically on the kill floor, workers standing shoulder to shoulder often mistakenly stab themselves or their co-workers. They regularly suffer carpal tunnel syndrome due to the constant cutting motions they are forced to repeat all day with large, dull butcher knives. The United Food and Commercial Workers union projects 800 significant injuries at the Tar Heel plant in 2006, as compared to 300 in 2003.
In many cases, workers who have been hurt on the job have not received workers’ compensation. Because there is no union to fight for them, filing complaints or filing for workers’ compensation increases the risk of being fired.
Despite these cruel working conditions, Fortune magazine just ranked Smithfield as one of “America’s Most Admired Companies.”
Racism used to intimidate and exploit workers
Meatpackers’ wages at Smithfield are 20 percent lower than that of an average worker in the same region. Nevertheless, Smithfield bosses are using racist tactics to drive down wages even further and dismantle union organizing efforts.
Sixty percent of the workers at Smithfield are Latino. Many of them are undocumented immigrants. Smithfield has actively recruited immigrant labor, because the bosses can more easily threaten and intimidate undocumented workers in order to lower all workers’ wages.
Organizing a union would strengthen the workers’ position against the racist and exploitative tactics of Smithfield. The effort to form a union first began 12 years ago. Since then, union organizing drives have been met continually with violence and intimidation from Smithfield bosses who, until 2005, had a private police force at their disposal. The union spearheading the organizing attempts has been the UFCW.
The firing of 75 immigrant workers coincides with another big push by the UFCW to unionize the Tar Heel plant workers. Firing these workers was another act of intimidation from Smithfield, this time targeting the workers who were most vulnerable due to their legal status.
The hypocrisy of Smithfield is overt. Although Smithfield spokesperson Dennis Pittman claimed that the company began matching Social Security numbers to identify undocumented employees to comply with federal immigration law, the company has been actively recruiting undocumented workers and exploiting them for years.
And according to organizer Eduardo Pena, Smithfield has also sent Social Security “no match” letters to workers who have valid Social Security numbers.
In a Nov. 17 press release, Smithfield deceptively framed the issue as if it was forced to undertake the matching process by federal law. But in the same press release, the company stated that it has voluntarily halted the matching process following the walkout.
This is just big business exploiting workers under the protection of the capitalist government, which also stands to benefit by crushing the labor movement.
Winning a union at Smithfield would be an important step in the overall fight against racist exploitation and for working-class unity.
Carolina and her sister stay with Everildo Lopez, a worker who was injured at Smithfield.
Photo: David Bacon
