First-ever Union Contract Approved at World's Largest Pork Plant

More than 5,000 workers at the world's
largest pork processing plant, Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, N.C.,
approved their first-ever union contract in voting that ended Thursday.

The contract was negotiated by United Food and Commercial Workers
Local 1208, the union that workers at the plant selected as their
representative after a 13-year struggle that drew worldwide attention
and support.


The new contract, according to the union, provides for wage
increases of $1.50 an hour over the next four years and
company-provided affordable family health care coverage. Other
improvements include additional paid sick leave and vacation benefits,
guaranteed weekly hours, three days of paid funeral leave for workers
following the death of immediate family members and a system to resolve
workplace issues.


The union's negotiating team was also able to prevent the company
from cutting existing pension plans and won agreement on establishment
of joint worker-management safety committees, including company-funded
safety training for workers.


"This contract will completely transform our workplace," said
Orlando Williams, spokesperson for the union local in Tar Heel. "This
is the biggest four-year wage increase Smithfield workers have ever had
and it will make a real difference for our families and in this
community.


"We could never have gotten that increase without a chance to
bargain with the company," Williams said, adding, "We will finally have
a sense of security on the job because through our union we can make
sure we have a safe place to work, and that everyone's treated fairly."


The 5,000 members at the Tar Heel union local now join 10,000 other
Smithfield workers who are UFCW members. Union members at the company's
other plants throughout the country have been closely watching
developments in Tar Heel.


"I know the difference having a union makes," said Jim Olson, a
shop steward at UFCW Local 304A and a 35-year veteran of Smithfield's
John Morrell Plant in Sioux Falls, S.D. "The more meatpacking workers
who join our union, the more power we have to raise wages and benefits
– in our own local unions, and for everybody who works in this
industry. That's what being in the union is all about."


John Wojcik is the labor editor at People's Weekly World, www.pww.org.