Processing Pain at Smithfield Foods

• subscribe to print magazine

  First Name Last Name Home Address City State Zip Code Email

  2-year, 24-issues, $44.95 1-year, 12-issue, $24.95

• stay in touch with our email newsletter

  Subscribe to our regular weekly e-mail newsletter. It's packed with updates on recent and upcoming stories, events, campaigns and things every progressive should be informed about.

   

• email this article to a friend

  Your Name Your Email Recipient Email

  Personal message Thought you might be interested in this article from In These Times.

   

  Please help us prevent spam by verifying the word you see in the image above

  Send to multiple recipients. Just separate each email address with a comma.

• Reader Comments (7)

  Page 1 of 1 pages

  Hogs

  Posted by Paul Morse on Jul 28, 2006 at 12:27 PM

  I have purchased Smithfield meats for some time now, because of the leaness and seeming good quality of their product.

  I don’t have to buy their meats and won’t any longer unless I learn that their practices have changed and they are treating their people as well as they treat their product. 

  People deserve to be treated ast well as or better than a piece of meat.
  It’s time we rebelled against the money greedy businesses and show we care about humankind.

  Posted by sallyb36 on Jul 28, 2006 at 7:16 PM

  This article, as well as other reports I’ve read about corporations in general, is proof enough to me that slavery was never abolished in the United States.  Today it continues in its many evil forms, white collar and blue collar alike, supported by laws made from politicians whose only interest is in giving themselves annual raises and mere lip service to the people’s interests.

  Although I no longer live in the US, I’ve known all along that corporations like Smithfield abuse workers in every which way they can get away with it.  All their products should be boycotted - now, because there are many healthier alternatives.

  Posted by davinci on Jul 29, 2006 at 5:13 AM

  It seems strange that the prison work-release workers were allowed to particpate in the union election.  They aren’t “real” employees, and would not be “real” union menbers.  I’m thinking that most of the prisoners voted along with management.  I hope that the outcome of the election did not hinge on the prisoner vote............

  The union website reports on a strike by workers against Tyson Foods.  There are listed several issues in dispute.  This seems to be the first strike ever against Tyson, in this plant, which has apparently been unionized for quite some time.  Link is here:  http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/tyson_families_stand_up/index.cfm

  Posted by J Petersmith on Jul 29, 2006 at 12:50 PM

  Well Redhorse doesn’t buy Smithfield or Dyson products.....not surprized by the work conditions...though...sallyb36...davinci...both of your observations are correct and a boycott of these products and others would be a helpful solution....
  Basically this is economical slavery...a class war that is at the base of what “ Fascism “...is all about....If not Enrons artificial inflating it’s profit margin using questionable accounting practices...it’s a company like Smithfield cutting costs against the workers best interests.....
  Not to mention the run off waste from these plants...and the effect on the local enviroment....

  Posted by Redhorse on Jul 30, 2006 at 6:21 AM

  This discussion helped me decide to check on the activities of a meat packing plant back in Northern Indiana.  We moved from that locale in ‘91.  There had been a Wilsons meatpacking plant there for years.  Hard work but decent pay.  It sold and is now an IBP, Iowa Beef Producers actually processes hogs in the area.  I researched IBP and found through Wikipedia that it was sold to Tyson but retained the IBP, Inc. name.

  The reason I bring this up is because IBP wages are dramatically lower than the former Wilson plant; and, when IBP opened up for business they also brought Hispanic workers into the area who were willing to work for a lot less.  Logansport, In. had almost no Hispanics, except for late summer migrants who came to harvest tomatoes and exited once that harvest was done. 

  In 2005 Logansport reported the Hispanics numbered 12.6% of their near 20,000 population.  Many of the locals feel this population has caused wages to decrease, while costs increase, particularly in the demand for rental properties.  The situation is nothing that anyone ever expected way up north in the middle of corn and soybean USA.  There is expressed resentment for the added demands on social services, cultural clashes at the high school, some gang activity…

  The past 15 years I have lived and taught near major cities and am acclimated to this kind of diversity but it’s been quite a cultural shock for this small town in serious ways and this, in my opinion, definitely has its base in corporate greed.

  At this point, I’m not saying what is right or wrong, how everyone is to think and do; but, my experience tells me it’s kind of sad.  There seems to be no way for the average person to win the way things are going.  If you stay with the status quo, you lose in spirit because others were shut out.  If you go with change, you lose to the economic dynamics that favor business.

  Posted by sallyb36 on Jul 30, 2006 at 1:12 PM

  As an article on labor issues this was an eye opener.  Conditions are worsening and union ability to confront these problems and enforce existing laws is declining.  Industries such as meat packing are have a reputation for large numbers of illegal immigrants especially in places like the IBP plants in Nebraska and Iowa.  It has been suggested that it is not so much the availability of cheap immigrant labor that has resulted in the downgrading of the structure of work and the filling of those roles with illegals but rather the role of globalization in weakening workers and unions, restructuring work processes, and leading to a downgrading and casualization of work in line with the overall neo-liberalization of the global market and thus globalizing labor markets and making more and more work subject to a secondary tier structure.

  Stronger unionization of ALL workers and a redirection of the immigration debate to be inclusive of illegals and organize them will break the attempts by capital to divide and defeat the working class. Unionization is the answer, not scapegoating!

  Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Aug 21, 2006 at 2:27 AM

  Page 1 of 1 pages

• register a new account »Posting Security

  To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.

  Username Password

    Remember me
  

  Retreive lost password »

Also by Aaron Sarver

• Kids LOL @ Navy Recruiters
  Millennials, explained Arthur Mitchell, director of strategic planning for the Navy's Accelerate Your Life campaign, are "narcissistic praise junkies" and "a somewhat alien life force"
• Creating the 21st Century Library
  The Prelinger Library eschews the Dewey Decimal and Library of Congress systems, and is organized instead by what Megan Shaw Prelinger calls "a map of my brain"
• A Win for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
  In the face of a giant protest, McDonald's caves into farmworkers' demands for a penny per basket raise.
• Cholera and the City
  
• Witnessing Extraordinary Rendition
  Nonprofit organization Witness uses video like the new film Outlawed, to document human rights abuses worldwide.
• Tracking the CIA Torture Flights
  In their new book Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights, A.C. Thompson and Trevor Paglen detail how the CIA transports detainees worldwide.