Political Notes: Meat company officials put the heat on council (Smithfield before the Prince George

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.gazette.net/stories/041708/prinnew190047_32366.shtml

by Daniel Valentine | Political notes

Local and national officials for the Smithfield Foods Inc. meat company appeared before the Prince George’s County Council last week to say the council’s involvement in a labor dispute was not kosher.

In November, the council passed a resolution denouncing the company for allegedly disrupting efforts by workers to form a union at a pork processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C. The council unanimously passed the resolution Nov. 20 at the request of the local labor union United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400.

In the resolution, county officials pledged to support workers against an alleged ‘‘environment of intimidation, fear and violence” at the North Carolina pork processing facility that employs more than 5,000 people.

‘‘Your resolution made it sound like we were harming people, mistreating people and that is not the truth,” said Jim Patterson, a public relations manager for the meat company based out of Smithfield, Va. ‘‘We’d ask that you try to understand before you take action.”

Patterson said the UFCW union has used the council’s resolution to discredit Smithfield. UFCW officials could not be reached by press time.

The dispute centered around how the union is trying to enlist workers, Patterson said. While Smithfield wants a unionization vote to occur through secret ballot, UFCW wants to collect worker signatures through an open petition. Both sides claim the other’s method encourages worker intimidation.

The local manager for Smithfield’s processing plant in Landover also roasted the council.

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