Smithfield "Packaged with Abuse" Campaign Launched in DC
Friday, June 20, 2008
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The perfect June day belied the ugly tales of worker abuse at Thursday’s
Smithfield “Packaged With Abuse” campaign kickoff. Dozens of supporters
gathered beneath blue skies clad in “Justice/Justicia at Smithfield”-
emblazoned shirts as a giant “demon pig” puppet loomed in front of a “Wall
of Shame” listing the many Smithfield workers who have sustained injuries over
a brief 12-month period. Sade Morris, a former Smithfield worker, told of being fired the day before her scheduled surgery for an injury on
the job. The 22 year-old now not only faces a large debt from her surgery, but
has poor job prospects because of her injury. Dozens of labor, political,
religious and community activists, leaders and supporters turned out at the
First Baptist Church in Northeast DC to help launch a major advertising campaign
spotlighting injuries and abuses at the Smithfield plant in Tarheel, NC. Prince
George’s County Councilmember Eric Olson read the County Council’s resolution
of support for Smithfield workers, a representative from DC
Councilmember Phil Mendelson’s office pledged that Mendelson will introduce a
resolution to encourage all supermarkets and vendors in DC not to stock
Smithfield meat products until the company improves treatment of its workers,
and Metro Council President Jos Williams declared that “There can be no real
justice in DC until there is justice in Carolina!” In a taste of the campaign
to come, a boisterous crowd of activists chanting “Until Smithfield does
better by us, we can buy better than Smithfield” marched to the Georgia
Avenue/Petworth Metro station and passed out leaflets to Metro passengers about
the plight of the Smithfield workers.
- report/photo by Tiye
Kinlow