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Ruling against pork processor upheld

Tommy

Well-known member
Ruling against pork processor upheld



THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Winston-Salem Journal

RALEIGH, NC

May 2, 2006



A company police force illegally threatened and assaulted employees of a contractor hired to clean Smithfield Foods' massive pork-processing factory in Tar Heel, a National Labor Relations Board panel said in a ruling released yesterday.



The panel upheld a year-old ruling by an administrative-law judge who said that Smithfield's private police force and managers from the contractor, QSI Inc., bullied and abused the workers when they walked off the job in November 2003.



The workers were demanding a $1-an-hour raise, reinstatement of two lower-level managers who had recently been fired and improved working conditions. When they tried to walk out, they were threatened with firing and arrest by immigration authorities, and some were physically assaulted, according to the NLRB.



"By virtually all accounts, the walkout by the employees was a peaceful and a reasonable means of protest," protected by federal labor law, according to the April 11, 2005, ruling by Administrative Law Judge Lawrence W. Cullen. "The violence that occurred was initiated by respondent QSI's management and the Smithfield Special Police."



The labor-relations panel upheld Cullen's decision in a ruling dated Friday and released yesterday.



It ordered QSI to reinstate 14 workers who were fired for walking out and to give them back pay, and it told both companies to stop firing, assaulting, threatening or otherwise mistreating employees who engaged in legally protected labor actions.



Smithfield plans to appeal the decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, a company spokesman said in a statement that noted that Smithfield no longer employs a special police force.
 

Mike

Well-known member
Just a month ago:

Smithfield Foods' Social Responsibility Report Covers 2005 Corporate Performance Record
Wednesday April 5, 1:46 pm ET

SMITHFIELD, Va., April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Smithfield Foods, Inc. today issued its Corporate Social Responsibility Report for 2005, which focuses on a wide range of achievements in support of the company's commitment to being socially responsible in all facets of its operations.

This is Smithfield Foods' first Corporate Social Responsibility Report. In previous years the company issued an annual Stewardship Report, which provided detailed information about the company's performance record on the environment, animal welfare, employee safety and community involvement.

"For 2005, we expanded our focus to the broader commitment of corporate social responsibility," said C. Larry Pope, president and chief operating officer for Smithfield Foods. "In addition to covering our traditional topics, our report now also focuses on community involvement, food safety and international social responsibility. This supports our aspiration to become the most trusted leader in the livestock production and meat processing industries."

The new report underscores Smithfield's expectations for its domestic and international employees. "All employees are responsible for adhering to our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, which establishes clear expectations for complying with our company's policies and all applicable environment, employee health and safety, labor, food safety and animal welfare laws," Pope said. The report can be downloaded at http://www.smithfieldfoods.com/Enviro/ARS .

He pointed out that Smithfield's Code of Business Conduct and Ethics has been translated into French, Spanish, Polish and Romanian. "All of our international subsidiaries are also expected to comply with our code," Pope said.

"Our long-term goal is to adapt many of the best practices we've developed in our U.S. operations to our international subsidiaries' practices, taking into account their diverse local regulatory requirements and circumstances and their communities' needs," he added.

During 2005, in addition to making significant progress in traditional performance reporting areas, Smithfield Foods also recorded achievements in areas new to this year's report:

-- Smithfield Foods became the first company in its industry to achieve
ISO 14001 certification of its Environmental Management System (EMS)
for all U.S. hog production facilities and all pork and beef processing
facilities, except for recent acquisitions.
-- Smithfield's Polish farms' EMS achieved ISO 14001 certification.
-- For environmental stewardship performance, Smithfield received
Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards from Wisconsin and Virginia.
-- Compass Group North America consulted with Smithfield and the
U.S.-based nonprofit Environmental Defense to develop a first-of-its-
kind purchasing policy related to the use of antibiotics in pork
production.
-- All farms owned by Murphy-Brown LLC, Smithfield's hog production
subsidiary, and Smithfield's Tar Heel, N.C., processing plant received
the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) "Process Verified"
certification. The USDA's Process Verified Program is modeled on the
ISO 9000 quality management and assurance standards.
-- Smithfield subsidiaries combined to donate more than 2.5 million pounds
of meat products to the vast network of food banks operated by
Chicago-based nonprofit America's Second Harvest.
-- In support of Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts, Smithfield
subsidiaries donated more than 200,000 pounds of meat products, and
employees personally contributed $53,000.
-- Smithfield Foods Romania donated more than $100,000 to provide
critically needed food and supplies and to help rebuild employees'
homes in the wake of devastating floods in Romania.
-- Smithfield employees from 23 operations in the U.S. and Europe joined
with other volunteers in the third annual World Water Monitoring Day to
collect and test local water samples. Smithfield employees recruited
science classes, scout troops and organizations to test the purity of
samples from more than 60 rivers, lakes and streams.
-- The Smithfield-Luter Foundation gave $5 million to Christopher Newport
University in Newport News, Va. - the largest gift in the school's
history.
-- To improve communication between new hires and their trainers,
Smithfield Beef Group's Sun Land Division now provides training in
Spanish, Arabic, Egyptian, Somali, Bosnian and Vietnamese.


"We will continue to roll up our sleeves and demonstrate Smithfield Foods' performance record regarding all aspects of social responsibility because we want to be known as the most trusted leader in the livestock production and meat processing industries," Pope added.

Smithfield Foods recently was named to the prestigious London-based FTSE4Good Index Series that is limited to companies demonstrating social responsibility. The FTSE4Good Index is a unit of FTSE Group, which is owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. FTSE creates and manages international indices and associated data services. Its FTSE4Good unit measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards.

Additionally, for the fourth consecutive year Smithfield was named to FORTUNE magazine's prestigious annual list of America's Most Admired Companies, ranking third among all U.S. food production companies. The company was ranked ahead of all beef and pork processors.

Smithfield Foods has delivered a 25 percent average annual compounded rate of return to investors since 1975. With sales of $11 billion, Smithfield is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs. For more information, visit http://www.smithfieldfoods.com .


Source: Smithfield Foods, Inc.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
Smithfield Foods has delivered a 25 percent average annual compounded rate of return to investors since 1975. With sales of $11 billion, Smithfield is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs. For more information, visit http://www.smithfieldfoods.com .


And what kind of rate of return have farmers/ranchers recieved? Fraud at GIPSA and overall lack of enforcement has given agribusiness the upper hand in our economy.
 

PORKER

Well-known member
Smithfield Foods recently was named to the prestigious London-based FTSE4Good Index Series that is limited to companies demonstrating social responsibility. The FTSE4Good Index is a unit of FTSE Group, which is owned by The Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange. FTSE creates and manages international indices and associated data services. Its FTSE4Good unit measures the performance of companies that meet globally recognized corporate responsibility standards.

Additionally, for the fourth consecutive year Smithfield was named to FORTUNE magazine's prestigious annual list of America's Most Admired Companies, ranking third among all U.S. food production companies. The company was ranked ahead of all beef and pork processors.

Smithfield Foods has delivered a 25 percent average annual compounded rate of return to investors since 1975. With sales of $11 billion, Smithfield is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs.

limited to companies demonstrating social responsibility. America's Most Admired Companies, ranking third among all U.S. food production companies Smithfield Foods has delivered a 25 percent average annual compounded rate of return to investors since 1975. With sales of $11 billion, Smithfield is the leading processor and marketer of fresh pork and processed meats in the United States, as well as the largest producer of hogs.
MOST All hog farmers got was a loss or elimanated from the countrys infrasturture while small county towns dried up.Same thing happened in POULTRY and CATTLE will be NEXT.
Must be the adgenda is only ONE Hog operation to a country!!!!! If's thats the case then the workers will be called slaves.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
The propaganda apparatus these guys employ is truely amazing. These companies put out their corporate responsibility BS and skirt the laws.

As I said before, they must have Joseph Goeble's hiers working for them.
 

Econ101

Well-known member
PORKER said:
Yup, Some call it WAL-Mart aggression and slavery in the same note, all for investors and stockholders.

Their workers in the meat counter sure don't have any knowledge about the meat they sell. I think they want to keep them dumb. Meat grades could be described pretty quickly to them. Boardroom managament has asked for profits over service. They will every time they can get away with it.
 

Tommy

Well-known member
Court Rules Pork Processor Broke Law in Fighting Union



By STEVEN GREENHOUSE

The New York Times

May 10, 2006



Nearly nine years after a unionization drive failed, a federal appeals court has ruled that the Smithfield Packing Company repeatedly broke the law in battling unionization at its giant pork-processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C.



In a decision released on Monday, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld a broad cease-and-desist order that the National Labor Relations Board issued against Smithfield in 2004 in response to complaints by the United Food and Commercial Workers. The union accused Smithfield of illegally skewing a 1997 election by intimidating and firing workers.



Concluding that Smithfield had engaged in "intense and widespread coercion," the appeals court upheld the labor board's ruling that one worker was improperly coerced when he was ordered to stamp hogs with a "Vote No" stamp.



The appeals court ordered Smithfield to reinstate four fired workers, one of whom was beaten by the plant's police the day of the election. The court concurred with the labor board's findings that Smithfield's managers were not credible when they insisted that the four workers were fired for reasons other than their support for the union.



The circuit court noted that Smithfield had illegally confiscated union materials, spied on workers' union activities, threatened to fire workers who voted for the union, and threatened to freeze wages and shut the plant if the employees unionized. The Smithfield plant has 5,500 employees and is the world's largest pork-processing facility.



The union, which has complained about how long the litigation has taken, is continuing organizing efforts at the plant, but is not seeking an election. It lost the 1997 election 1,910 to 1,107.



Gene Bruskin, the director of the unionization drive, said, "It's atrocious that the courts and the N.L.R.B. have taken this long and that Smithfield can get off the hook for this long when it has shown such gross disregard for the laws of the land."



Smithfield voiced disappointment, saying it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. Dennis Pittman, Smithfield's director of human resources, said, "We are proud of our high employee morale, and we are anxious to put this issue behind us."



In a separate case, the labor board ruled last week that Smithfield and QSI, the cleaning contractor in Tar Heel, had assaulted and illegally fired several immigrants who staged a walkout in November 2003 to protest the firing of two supervisors. Smithfield said it would appeal.



nytimes.com

Pork processor warned on union

A union organizer expects little to change. Smithfield Packing may appeal



Barbara Barrett, Washington Correspondent

The News & Observer

May 10, 2006

North Carolina, US



WASHINGTON - A federal appeals court has ordered Smithfield Packing Co., which runs the nation's largest hog-killing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., to never again threaten workers who are trying to unionize.

But the union seeking to represent those workers doesn't think the legal order will change things.



"We fully expect Smithfield to ignore it," said Gene Bruskin, the Smithfield organizer for the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which is trying to organize workers. "On a practical level, sadly, there's no consequence."



For its part, Smithfield said in a statement that it is "disappointed" with the ruling and may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.



The ruling came Friday from the District of Columbia Circuit of the Court of Appeals. It agreed that during two union drives in 1994 and 1997, the company confiscated union materials, spied on employees and threatened workers with firings, wage freezes and a plant closure if the union was approved.



Both times, the food workers union lost the worker elections.



Now, according to the ruling, the plant must pledge that the threats and intimidation won't happen again. It must say plainly, We will not assault you. We will not interrogate you. We will not intimidate you. We will not threaten you.



It must post the promises in the plant and mail them to affected workers. And it must allow the union to hold an election.



Renee L. Bowser, the union attorney who argued the case, said the ruling also grants back pay to 10 workers who were fired for supporting the union. The amount will be decided by the National Labor Relations Board, though Smithfield could challenge that.



Bruskin said he doesn't think anything concrete will come from the ruling. Instead, he said he expects the company will appeal and drag out its response.



"There's no teeth, so all of these things have no impact," Bruskin said.



Smithfield employees about 6,000 workers at the hog-killing and processing plant in Tar Heel, a small community about 100 miles south of Raleigh. Employees working fast-moving assembly lines slaughter and cut up hogs every few seconds.



The court ruling came on an appeal of a decision by the National Labor Relations Board about whether Smithfield had acted wrongly during the two union drives. The food workers union asked the appeals court to give the union special access to workers to help them organize.



The ruling Friday denied that special access, but it upheld the other findings.



Smithfield said in a statement Tuesday that it was disappointed that the appeals court did not overturn part of the labor board's decision that found fault with the company's conduct.



The statement said most workers involved in the 1997 case have left and that the latest ruling and allegations against the company have no impact on current employees.



"The folks who are working here today don't know much about any of this and are basically unaffected by the claims and allegations," Dennis Pittman, director of human resources for Smithfield Packing, said in the statement.



He said the plant has one of the best retention rates in the industry and some of the best wages and benefits in the community. "We are proud of our employee morale and anxious to put this issue behind us," Pittman said.



Also last week, the same court found that Smithfield and a cleaning company with which it contracted had physically assaulted workers in retaliation for walking out in protest of a fired supervisor.



The court found the walkout was reasonable and protected under federal law.



The court said Smithfield must stop threatening or assaulting workers who try to organize or demonstrate under the law and that it must reinstate 14 workers to former jobs or the equivalent and give them back pay.



The rulings come as the food workers union is again trying to organize Smithfield workers. Every day, Bruskin said, the union hears from people who attend meetings, sign cards and say they want representation.



And Bruskin said the years-long court process allows companies to continue blocking union efforts.



"This is still alive today inside the plant," he said. "The workers there want a union."



newsobserver.com
 
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