Home »
Issues
»
Employee Free Choice
»
Workers on Why We Need Employee Free Choice
»
Wilson Workers: Christina
Wilson Workers: Christina
Christina Newsome
We needed a union at Smithfield. There’s no job security anywhere these days. But with a union contract, you have some measure of job security, because they can’t fire you for any reason. The way I saw it, Smithfield is either going to stay, or it’s going to go—regardless of the union. And while it’s here, shouldn’t there be justice? But we didn’t have justice, only a kangaroo court they called “peer review.”
We had a lot of support at first, and the more people learned about labor laws, the more support we had. But the company worked hard to change that constantly mentioning the possibility of the company closing. They also mentioned other companies that had closed around here even without a union, because of the economy, implying that if they closed (because of the union) that there wouldn’t be any jobs left. They passed out a handbill that had people wearing UFCW T-shirts standing in an unemployment line.
They kept talking about how much we would pay in union dues and blowing it out of proportion. I kept telling people, “Since when does the company care about whether we have enough money? They don’t care about our electric bills, or whether our pay for 40 hours brings in enough money to live. Now they’re acting like they care whether we choose to pay $7 in union dues?
But they really pressured people and created tension in the workplace. The company used one line leader in particular to do their dirty work. They allowed him to harass people and question them on their union activity.
