Union win at NC pork plant a rare victory

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/12/12/ap5816523.html

By EMERY P. DALESIO , 12.12.08, 03:56 PM EST
pic

Organized labor got a big boost in the country's least unionized state when workers at the world's largest hog processing plant voted to unionize.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union and Smithfield, Va.-based Smithfield Foods Inc. (nyse: SFD - news - people ) had tussled ever since the Smithfield Packing Co. plant in rural North Carolina opened in 1992.

Smithfield Packing works with unions at eight its 13 plants. But it saw the plant in the hamlet of Tar Heel as so large, with a work force of 5,000, and so central to its production chain that it was determined to keep the union out, North Carolina State University labor historian David Zonderman said Friday.

The 52 percent support for union representation, announced after balloting ended Thursday evening at the plan, which slaughters 32,000 hogs a day and processes them into pork ready for grocery shelves, is a key victory for labor, he said.

"I think it is a bright spot. The Southeast has traditionally been a hard place for labor to organize," he said. "I think this particular union, the UFCW, is certainly trying to organize other packing plants in the Southeast."

FULL story at link.