Case Study on Why Workers Need Employee Free Choice:
Smithfield Foods, Wilson, N.C.
Earlier this year, workers at Smithfield Foods' Wilson North Carolina meatpacking plant contacted the UFCW because they wanted a union at their workplace. They were inspired by the workers just down the road at Smithfield's Tar Heel, NC plant. Workers in Tar Heel had recently won a union voice on the job and they were at the bargaining table with the company working on a new contract. Many workers in Wilson say they wanted a union too--so they could finally have dignity and respect on the job, so they could confront management about unfair favoritism in the workplace, and so they could have a union contract for job security in tough times.
They talked to their co-workers in the break room and in the parking lot, and soon, a majority of workers had signed cards saying they wanted to join the UFCW.
Workers asked the company to recognize their union, but Smithfield refused and demanded they hold an election. But before the election could be held, the company fired a few of the most vocal union supporters and ran a pressure campaign to get workers to fear so much for their jobs, that they would vote no.
If Employee Free Choice were the law, Smithfield couldn't have forced their employees to hold that election. They wouldn't have run that anti-union campaign. And they would have had to respect their workers' choice once a clear majority had signed union cards.
