Smithfield Foods wins coveted Big Brass Balls Award

[jmowreader]

Monday was Martin Luther King Day. There were speeches. Parades. Prayer breakfasts.

Oh yeah. There was also a bit of controversy. Smithfield Foods is a meat company. They're not evil beyond the ability of modern man to describe it, but they're pretty bad. Anyway, last Tuesday someone at their Tar Heel, NC, pork plant started a petition asking that the company give the employees the day off if they wanted it. And naturally, Smithfield being Smithfield, they claimed that they didn't get enough notice. They also blamed the United Food and Commercial Workers union for trying to make the plant management look bad. The managers at the Tar Heel plant tend to blame the UFCW for everything that goes on out there. Anyway, according to the Fayetteville Observer (no link--they charge), four-fifths of the plant's workers asked for the day off--over 4000 people. (The people who took Monday off were granted "unpaid time off" and not fired.)

This morning, I found a copy of Tuesday's paper in the breakroom at work. In it were some photos from the Cumberland County Martin Luther King Memorial Prayer Breakfast. Three guesses as to what company sponsored it.

[Rosemary2205]

1. Smithfield has a union.

Martin Luther King day has been around a few years. There's been ample time to renegotiate the contract to list MLK day as an official off day - paid or otherwise. That's the whole point of the contract negotiations. I personally see no conflict of interest between Smithfield sponsoring a MLK prayer breakfast and at the same time honoring it's contract with the UFCW.

[jmowreader]

2. Not all of Smithfield's plants are unionized

The one in Tar Heel is not unionized, the UFCW has been trying to win a certification election, and the plant's management has done everything short of gunfire to keep the union out. It's pretty bad.

[Rosemary2205]

3. Aha.

You confused me in the original post. My apologies. Plus, I know Smithfield is on my "buy union" sheet...... Sorry again.

"They also blamed the United Food and Commercial Workers union for trying to make the plant management look bad. The managers at the Tar Heel plant tend to blame the UFCW for everything that goes on out there."