Smithfield "Packaged with Abuse" Campaign Launched in DC

(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