North Carolina organizers hold
Statewide Day of Action Against Smithfield
By
Dante Strobino
Raleigh, N.C.
Published Dec 8, 2006 11:27 PM
More than 700 people gathered in 11 cities across the state of
North Carolina on Dec. 2 to support the just demands of workers
at Smithfield, the world’s largest hog slaughtering plant
located in Tar Heel. The statewide day of action was held at
North Carolina-based Harris Teeter grocery stores to demand that
they support the largely immigrant workforce by not selling the
company’s pork.
Dec. 2 Raleigh solidarity action with Smithfield workers
Photo: Donald Minor
|
Most of the Smithfield plants across the country are unionized
through the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). But pork
and turkey coming out of the North Carolina plants find their way
into several local grocery stores, including Harris Teeter, which
uses mostly Smithfield meat for its store-packaged pork.
The USDA requires that codes be placed on all meat designating
its origin. Any meat containing codes 18079 or 79c is processed
at the Smithfield plant by oppressed workers.
Demonstrations organized by UFCW and community supporters were
held in Asheville, Charlotte, Durham, Fayetteville, Greensboro,
Hickory, High Point, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Wilmington and
Winston-Salem. At each site there was a media conference where
workers—most of whom were Latin@ or Black—spoke out
about the conditions in the plant. After the press conference,
workers and union organizers marched into the stores and
delivered a statement requesting that Harris Teeter stop doing
business with Smithfield.
The biggest demonstration was in Raleigh where almost 200 people
gathered, including members of the NAACP, the N.C. Council of
Churches, N.C. Public Sector Workers Union (UE local 150), Fight
Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST), Farm Labor Organizing
Committee (FLOC), N.C. State University Student-Worker Alliance,
College Democrats, Action for Community in Raleigh (ACRe),
Teamsters, AFL-CIO, and high school students from Raleigh Charter
and Athens High, amongst other organizations. Student Action with
Farmworkers (SAF) also played an important role statewide in
mobilizing to support the demonstration.
Participants, stretched at arms length, nearly surrounded the
entire parking lot of a Raleigh Harris Teeter and handed leaflets
to customers that explained the union’s main grievances are
that Smithfield “has used violence, threats and
intimidation against workers to suppress their rights; creates a
dangerous workplace with fast line speeds and inadequate
training; routinely fires injured workers and denies their
workers’ compensation claims; and stirs racial tensions
among African-American and Latino workers.”
Supporters’ signs read “Power to Immigrant Workers,
Union Rights Now” and “Black and Brown
Unity—UNIDAD Moren@ y Latin@.”
North Carolina is ripe for class struggle. It is the second-least
unionized state in the country and also has the fastest growing
immigrant population. Led by two Latina women still wearing their
hair nets and work hats, more than 1,000 workers walked out of
the Smithfield plant, shutting down two shifts of production on
Nov. 16. Even the private police force could not coerce workers
back into the plant as they continued to exercise their class
power through unity.
It is only through unity amongst the Black and Latin@ workers
that the will of workers will be exercised. The majority Black
workforce of city workers across the state continues to organize
their union, UE 150, and build their power following the historic
strike of Raleigh sanitation workers two mornings in
mid-September. Durham city workers later held a two-hour work
stoppage on Nov. 27.
UE150 is convening a Statewide City Workers Summit on Dec. 9,
drawing union workers from Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Durham,
Fayetteville, Greensboro, Greenville, Raleigh, Rocky Mount and
Wilson.
The struggle continues as these two strong workforces continue to
learn from each other and mutually build working-class power in
North Carolina.
The writer is an organizer with Raleigh FIST (Fight
Imperialism, Stand Together) youth group. Contact
[email protected].
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