Smithfield Walkout Saves Immigrants' Jobs

In an important victory for workers in the open shop South, 75 immigrants at the Smithfield pork processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, won their jobs back on November 18 after a two-day walkout. More than 1,000 workers, mainly Latino immigrants but also including black and white workers, walked out when the company fired the immigrants after their Social Security numbers were not verified and hundreds more workers were threatened. The walkout crippled production at the plant—the largest pork processing plant in the world—forcing the company to rehire all the workers with no reprisals. And for the first time, the company agreed to meet with a group of elected workers about conditions in the plant. Despite the victory, workers could still lose their jobs. Ever since this spring’s mass immigrant rights protests, the Department of Homeland Security has vindictively pushed for employers across the country to re-check workers’ Social Security numbers.

Among those Smithfield sought to fire were supporters of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which for more than a decade has fought to organize the plant. Conditions for the 6,000 workers are so hellish that, according to the UFCW, annual turnover at the plant is 100 percent! Pro-union workers have faced violent attacks by armed company goons and county sheriffs, racist harassment and anti-union blacklists. Job titles are segregated by race and ethnicity. It will take the fighting unity of black, Latino and white workers to organize the Smithfield plant. Last week’s successful job action could turn the tide in favor of the union, and an organizing victory at Smithfield could spur further organizing efforts in the South.