source: Farmland Foods
Workers at Smithfield Foods and Smithfield-owned brands like Farmland and Eckrich recently learned that a Chinese company, Shuanghui , has announced plans to buy the entire Smithfield family of companies. Shuanghui is China’s largest pork processor.
Over 16,000 workers across 14 different states work for Smithfield Foods and have a UFCW union contract. A few folks who work at Farmland Foods and are members of UFCW Local 440 in Denison, Iowa, sat down with USA Today and talked about what it’s like to work in a pork processing plant. They say that the work in the plant is demanding but workers are able to earn good wages and make a decent living for themselves and their families. Many of them talk about how having a job at Smithfield has meant they’ve been able to put their children through school, live in good communities, and earn good wages along with opportunities for advancement.
The kind of wages and benefits they’re describing are thanks to their union contract. Working union means living better. It’s called the union difference.
While some are apprehensive about a foreign company buying Smithfield, the transaction may provide an opportunity for the company to grow. Pork processing plants in the United States are exporting more pork to China to meet the country’s growing demand for the ‘other white meat’. Workers say that this might lead to more work, more shifts, and more jobs at plants in their communities – something our economy desperately needs.
Both Smithfield and Shuangui announced that they plan to continue to honor union contracts. With a union contract, jobs at Smithfield are safe and secure. No matter who owns Smithfield, the UFCW will continue fight for the kind of wages and benefits that the UFCW Local 440 workers are describing – at Smithfield workplaces, and at packing, poultry, and food processing worksites all over the country.
Watch the video of UFCW Local 440 workers talking about their union jobs and what the future could hold for them.
