Tar Heel, NC Smithfield Packing Workers Vote YES For Union

Dante Strobino, from UE Local 150, reported at 10:22pm that the workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, NC voted yes, 2041-1879, to have the United Food and Commercial Workers represent them.

Smithfield, UFCW start vote on union
By EMERY P. DALESIO, AP, Dec. 10, 2008

TAR HEEL, N.C. - Employees at Smithfield Packing Co.'s massive North Carolina hog slaughterhouse on Wednesday began two days of voting that will decide whether unions will get a rare boost in the country's least-unionized state.

But Bronfenbrenner thinks the past month may have marked a turning point in America's mood. More than half a million people were laid off in November alone, the government reported last week. A recession was officially declared, and signs mounted that the coming months or years could be the hardest hard times since the Great Depression.

Rising public anger over taxpayer bailouts for corporations focused on the CEOs of the Detroit Three automakers flying private jets to Washington to ask for public money. Workers at a Chicago window factory occupied private property to demand Bank of America reverse its decision to cut off credit, and President-elect Barack Obama signaled he sided with them, Bronfenbrenner said.

"This is a time workers are feeling, 'maybe this is our time and maybe employers aren't so invincible,'" she said.

The decision on whether to call in the United Food and Commercial Workers is colored by the rising specter of layoffs amid national economic gloom, and the election of a president and Congress seen as more friendly to labor unions.

But most important in the decision by about 4,600 workers expected to be announced late Thursday will be how secure Smithfield workers feel about their jobs, and whether they think involving the UFCW would help or hurt them, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of labor education research at Cornell University and a former union organizer.

"They look at the things that are happening right there in their town or in their workplace," said Bronfenbrenner, who studies factors contributing on union success or failure in organizing. "Has the union focused on the issues that resonate with them? Do they believe this union is theirs? It all depends on what happens there, at Smithfield."

The UFCW has maintained an office presence near the plant for well over a year as it tried to build trust with workers. It has brought in Spanish-speaking organizers to meet with the plant's growing Hispanic work force, and sided with them when federal immigration officials raided the plant. That contrasts with the union's 1994 and 1997 unionizing campaigns, when mobilizers rushed in a few months ahead of the vote.

A federal court ruled in 2006 that Smithfield's bad conduct during those two elections unfairly skewed the votes the union lost.

But Bronfenbrenner thinks the past month may have marked a turning point in America's mood. More than half a million people were laid off in November alone, the government reported last week. A recession was officially declared, and signs mounted that the coming months or years could be the hardest hard times since the Great Depression.

Rising public anger over taxpayer bailouts for corporations focused on the CEOs of the Detroit Three automakers flying private jets to Washington to ask for public money. Workers at a Chicago window factory occupied private property to demand Bank of America reverse its decision to cut off credit, and President-elect Barack Obama signaled he sided with them, Bronfenbrenner said.

"This is a time workers are feeling, 'maybe this is our time and maybe employers aren't so invincible,'" she said.

Jeffrey Hirsch, a University of Tennessee labor law professor who formerly worked for the National Labor Relations Board, agrees that bad economic times are often good times for unions.

"It's an irony perhaps that unions can get a bump in PR and show their relevance when times are bad. That's really when unions show their worth," he said.

Others think rising job fears will lead Smithfield workers to recognize they earn a paycheck because decades ago companies began leaving union-friendly states for places like North Carolina. Only about 3 percent of the state's North Carolina workers belonged to a union in 2007, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the national average was 12.1 percent.

"The fact that there is so much economic uncertainty nationally, and so many of us don't see the resolution, actually makes employees in the South, who are a very savvy bunch, ask themselves, "Now, how will getting this union into this facility, how is it going to make my job more secure? How is it going to make this company prosper and with it my future?" said Bruce Clarke, chief executive of Capital Associated Industries, a nonprofit association of North Carolina employers.

Increasing demand for meat is expected to expand the number of U.S. jobs for people willing to do the hard work by 16 percent by 2016 compared to 2006, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But for now, companies have been trying to counter an oversupply of meat by cutting production to boost prices.

Investors have been worried about the meat industry due to high animal feed costs and sinking profits. Pilgrim's Pride Corp., the nation's largest chicken producer, was forced to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week.

Smithfield Packing's parent company Smithfield Foods last week reported its profit sank 76 percent in its second quarter due to rising grain prices. But investors were encouraged by the pork processor's statements that it may have turned the corner, had the backing of lenders if it needed to borrow in a crunch, and looked to pay down debt in 2009. At least three industry analysts expressed bullishness about Smithfield's future.

"The supply picture is becoming clearer as we near 2009 and looks to be lower than we expected in mid-to-late October," Deutsche Bank analyst Christina McGlone wrote in a note to clients this week.