http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1149188902075&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099Monday, July 3, 2006
Tensions high as union vote called at Smithfield
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TAR HEEL
After more than 10 years of opposing the formation of a union at the nation's largest hog-killing plant in Bladen County, Smithfield Packing Co. is calling for a vote so that workers can decide if they want union representation.
The request made June 29 comes after a campaign orga-nized by the United Food and Com-mercial Workers union against Smithfield. The union says that Smithfield exploits and endangers its workers.
The call for a vote has done little to ease the tension between Smithfield and the un-ion, which lost past unionization elections at the Smithfield plant in 1994 and 1997.
In May, the U.S. Court of Ap-peals for the District of Columbia ruled that Smithfield must pledge to never threat-en workers trying to un-ionize, concluding that Smithfield broke the law blunting a union drive nearly 10 years ago.
The ruling requires Smithfield, a division of Virginia's Smithfield Foods Inc., to post notices and mail letters saying that it will never assault, interrogate or intimidate workers trying to organize.
They want to settle the is-sue of unionization with another election. Smithfield executives said that the company will help pay for a neutral observer to oversee an election.