The Fayette Observer, December 21, 2008, Sunday

Copyright 2008 The Fayette Observer
The Fayette Observer (Fayetteville, North Carolina)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

December 21, 2008, Sunday

HEADLINE: Smithfield: Race and the union

BYLINE: John Ramsey and Sarah A. Reid, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C.

BODY:
Dec. 21--TAR HEEL -- For two years, Harold Simmons watched the changing faces from his job as crew chief on the kill floor.
As much as Simmons hated to acknowledge it, he knew what those new faces meant: The union would finally gain a foothold at the world's largest slaughterhouse -- Smithfield Packing Co.
In just two years, the racial makeup of Smithfield workers has gone from mostly Hispanic to mostly black.
The change started in 2006, when Smithfield notified more than 500 workers that their names and Social Security numbers didn't match. Months later, federal immigration officials raided the plant, arresting 21 Hispanic workers with the intent of deporting them.
Analysts say the raid, coupled with others in the area, created fear among Hispanic workers and led to an exodus -- at the plant and throughout the community.
In 2006, more than half of Smithfield's 5,000 workers were Hispanic. Today, Hispanics make up just 26 percent of the work force, a decline of about 1,000 workers.
Most of the workers who took their place were black people, many of whom were eager to join a union on the promise of improved working conditions and better pay.
On Dec. 11, workers approved the union by a vote of 2,041-1,879.
Although there is no way of knowing the racial breakdown of the vote, analysts and workers such as Simmons say the new black majority proved to be the difference.
Tasha Wallace cuts ribs off hogs' backbones eight hours a day at Smithfield. Wallace, who is black and supports the union, said she, too, saw the victory coming.
Hispanics, especially Mexicans, were scared to vote for organized labor, she said.
Miguel Esquilin, a Puerto Rican, works on the kill floor. His job is to put a hog head on a spike and send it down the line, an act he repeats more than 8,000 times a day. Esquilin said he spent countless hours trying to persuade Mexicans with questionable legal status that a vote for the union wouldn't provoke retaliation from Smithfield.
He said word got out that the National Labor Relations Board, which monitored the election, may ask workers to confirm their identity.
Hispanics' fear boiled down to one simple thing, Esquilin said: "If I don't follow Smithfield, I'll lose my work."

Richard Hurd, a labor relations expert at Cornell University, said those observations don't surprise him. Hurd said Hispanics and blacks typically favor unions at about the same rate, unless the Hispanics are illegal workers.

"Latinos with questionable status tend to be afraid of union status because they're afraid to bring attention to the issue," Hurd said. "If the change was from people in marginal situations to African-Americans, then just that change itself might make a difference."

Hurd said he sees the demographic changes at Smithfield as one of three major factors that pushed the union over the top. The other two are the agreement for a third party to hold an election in a neutral environment, and the recent election of Barack Obama, who supports unions.

Those, combined with the union's aggressive campaigning for years, likely made the difference, Hurd said.

When Smithfield opened its Tar Heel plant in 1992, most employees were black. But that changed as an influx of Hispanics flocked to the area in search of work.
By 2006, about 2,300 of the plant's 5,000 employees were Hispanic. That's the year Smithfield sent out hundreds of "no-match" letters to more than 500 employees, notifying them that the names and Social Security numbers they had given the company didn't match the Social Security Administration's records. Those employees could either prove their identity or be fired, the company told its workers.
Smithfield defended its actions, saying the federal government had threatened to fine companies that employed il-legal workers.
Union organizers accused Smithfield of calling immigration officials to intimidate union supporters.
A judge for the National Labor Relations Board had already found in 2001 that company officials sought to scare Hispanic workers by telling them that the union would report workers to immigration services.
Then, on Jan. 24, 2007, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested 21 Hispanic workers at the plant.
Dennis Pittman, Smithfield's spokesman, said the region saw an exodus of Hispanics after raids at Smithfield, Bald Head Island and Fort Bragg.
Mauricio Castro, an organizer with the North Carolina Latino coalition, said Hispanics in the area felt intimidated, so they left.
"I heard a couple of cases of people who had pretty much decided their dignity had been violated and they did not feel they needed to stay in a place that was hostile to them," Castro said. "I heard they would rather be in a place eating just rice and beans than be humiliated and looked down the way they have been."
Most moved to another part of the state to find work. Some went back home, Castro said.
The union took notice of the changing face of Smithfield and reorganized accordingly.
Staffing levels in its Lumberton office, once mostly Spanish speaking, turned largely to black people.
The union directed all questions to Jill Cashen, a spokeswoman in Washington.
Cashen said the union's goal is to be able to communicate best with the work force.
"I feel like the analysis of the racial dynamic is odd," she said.
If Smithfield hired 1,000 French speakers, the union would bring in organizers fluent in French, she said.
Cashen said organizing at Smithfield was a coveted job among union workers aiming to end years of abuses at the meat-packing plant.
Some organizers left their posts on election night and went to Lumberton in time to see Obama's acceptance speech. By 4 a.m. the next day, they were handling workers at the plant, she said. Between 50 and 70 union organizers rotated through Lumberton in the past two months, Cashen said, up from a normal staff of about 10.
"Because we've been working toward this day of having a fair election at Smithfield for so long, there was no greater assignment that someone could have," she said.
The union had access to a list of employee addresses and phone numbers that Smithfield was required to provide. It used that data to call people repeatedly and to make home visits.
"You have got to visit people at home. There is no other way to talk to them." Cashen said. "This is how unions or-ganize."
J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the union watchdog group Unionfacts.com, said unions are extremely precise in their targeting.
"If you are a Spanish speaker, you will probably have a Spanish speaker come to your door. If you are an Afri-can-American, you will almost always have an African-American talking to you," he said. "It's typically two or three. If you are a female, it is two or three ladies. If you are a male, it is two or three men."
Taylor Haats, 21, packs loins weighing 40 pounds and heavier into boxes. On Tuesday, he sat in the back of a van eating hot wings while talking with two buddies from work. All three said the union visited their homes with people who look like them.
One of Haats' friends said the union even called his grandmother's house trying to get in touch with him.
Simmons, the crew leader who voted against the union, said many people didn't like the calls and visits. Simmons lives in Dillon, S.C. He said he twice had home visits, and phone calls often woke him up.
The Elizabethtown-White Lake Chamber of Commerce ran anti-union ads leading up to the election. Rich Glenn, chamber president, said the campaign used private donations and no corporate funding. Glenn said it seemed like the union was given all the leeway it wanted, while Smithfield had its hands tied. And the chamber could only do so much to help.
"Obviously, we were outspent, out-manned." Glenn said. "This wasn't their first rodeo, so to speak."
As part of the agreement to hold the union vote, Smithfield was given time to meet with employees during the workday to explain why they might want to oppose the union.
Haats said the company's meeting was highly controlled. Answers to any questions were read from papers with answers pre-approved by management. Employees weren't allowed to ask their supervisors about the union during work, he said. Haats and others said the plant's Hispanic workers were taken to another area during the meetings.
Wallace said a lot of people went into the meetings favoring the union and came out with their minds changed.
The United Food and Commercial Workers union has been trying to organize the plant almost since the doors opened.
The 16-year struggle has been marked by aggressive tactics on both sides.
Rachel Billey remembers.
Billey has worked almost 17 years at the plant. She's worked on the cut floor and the kill floor. Now she is in the label cage, putting labels on packages of pork. When Billey started, she said, it took all day to kill 500 hogs. Now, the plant kills more than 32,000 a day. She remembers the failed union attempts in 1994 and 1997, ones that a judge threw out.
This election, even though it was close, lacked the tension of the two from the '90s, Billey said.
A fight broke out in 1997 after the ballots were counted.
Billey said the company kept her support because she didn't like the union's tactics, especially when it called for a boycott.
"Why would you try to sabotage the company like that when all you're trying to do is get in there?" she said.
After the holidays, workers will charter the new local union. No date has been set for election of officers
No one is exactly sure what the union will bring.
Workers are hoping for better benefits and higher pay, but they are scared.
Billey and Wallace, workers on opposite sides of the union vote, said people in the plant are worrying about the company closing its doors or laying people off.
Smithfield is losing money because of the exorbitant cost of corn and soybean meal. It posted a $13 million drop in earnings in the second quarter of this year. Its stock prices are down more than 70 percent.
And Smithfield has in the past moved jobs from unionized plants to non-union ones.
Pittman, the company spokesman, said he doesn't know of any immediate plans for layoffs or job relocations. But Smithfield, like the rest of the economy, isn't having an easy time right now, he said.
Wallace said workers are waiting with fingers crossed to see what will happen.
"I know we need a union, so I voted yes," Wallace said. "But a lot of people are scared because they say there's threats to be a layoff if the union came in. We're just hoping now that there is no layoff."
Staff writer Ed Panas contributed to this report.
Staff writer John Ramsey can be reached at ramseyj@fayobserver.com or 486-3574.
Staff writer Sarah A. Reid can be reached at reids@fayobserver.com or 323-4848, ext. 280.
To see more of The Fayetteville Observer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.fayettevillenc.com/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For re-prints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

LOAD-DATE: December 21, 2008