Union Tries to Unite Blacks, Latinos

Amelia Hernandez, a Guatemalan immigrant on the cutting line, said most Latinos would agree. "That's how we think," she said.

At the potluck, Mauricio Lopez dismissed that view. "They're a little scared," he said. "Some don't think we can win, but a majority do."

"A lot of accidents are happening," said Carlos Acosta, a meat cutter who, like most workers, works a 7 1/2 -hour shift with two, 30-minute breaks. "They treat the workers badly."

Edward Morrison's knee gave out one day when he was pushing 300-pound dead hogs to the slaughter, his feet slipping on blood and excrement. "That day, I was exhausted," he said.

Surgery was needed. A doctor's letter went out, and the company responded. "It said that if I didn't return to work in 30 days, I would be terminated," Morrison said.

Do not believe everything workers say, said company spokesman Dennis Pittman. Smithfield has treatment facilities, and it contracts with a health firm to provide a clinic that takes care of cuts and to monitor the health of workers and their families for a small fee.

The labor relations board and courts saw Smithfield differently. They agreed with union organizers and workers who said the company fought to undermine union elections in 1994 and 1997, intimidated workers who were pro-union, pitted black and Latino employees against each other, had union organizers arrested by an in-house police squad and threatened to close the plant.

An administrative law judge ordered the company to comply with federal labor laws. After the company appealed, the ruling was upheld by a panel of federal judges. Now, without admitting to wrongdoing, the company sent a letter to United Food and Commercial Workers saying the company is now open to elections.

"We are anxious to let our employees make the decision," said Pittman, who is spearheading a campaign to polish Smithfield's image.

But Gene Buskin, the union's campaign director for Smithfield, said the marketing plan is a trick that feels like deja vu.

After the 1994 election, "they said they had changed and invited us to hold the '97 election," he said. "What followed were 150 unfair labor violations, according to the NLRB, and 10 more years of intimidating workers."

"If this company had done what's in those reports, I never would have come back here to work," said Smithfield's Pittman, who grew up in North Carolina. "If we had a failure, it was not to do more training with our frontline managers. Now we teach civil treatment, dispute resolution, better communication with employees."

Sitting on the porch at the potluck, Bailey stared into the distance with sad eyes, uncertain about her future. If the company had not worked against a union in 1994 and 1997, Bailey said, she might still have her job.

"What we're saying is, when we're out there working, helping to bring you money, don't abandon us," she said. "Don't fire us. Don't take our benefits from us."