Meatpacker, Tar Heel, NC

On February 8, 2007, a worker in the livestock department of Smithfield’s notorious Tar Heel, NC plant testified before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions on Capitol Hill in support of the Employee Free Choice Act.

Keith Ludlum, a veteran of Desert Storm, detailed company abuses and the unfairness of the NLRB election process. “I need your help in giving a much needed voice to the hard working men and women at Smithfield,” he told representatives. “I need your help in establishing the safeguards we need at Smithfield and at all companies across this great country.”

The Employee Free Choice Act would give millions of American workers a chance to achieve the American Dream.

• Read Keith Ludlum's complete testimony (PDF)
  

Under the current system, when workers decide they want union representation, the company can drag out the process for years in an effort to suppress workers' rights through campaigns of intimidation, coercion, and illegal firings. Under EFCA, if a majority of all employees sign cards indicating support for a union the employer is required to recognize the union.

Ludlum was fired by Smithfield for union organizing activities in 1994. Determined to fight injustices at the plant, Ludlum left a secure, higher paying job and returned to Smithfield in July of 2006.

The United Food and Commercial Workers filed a claim on behalf of Ludlum and other workers with the National Labor Relations Board in 1994 and 1998. In 2000, after a 13-week trial, the NLRB Judge issued a decision finding massive violations of labor law and that Smithfield created “an atmosphere of intimidation and coercion” in order to prevent workers at the plant from joining a union.

In 2006, after more than 12 years of company appeals, Smithfield was required to offer jobs to workers who were illegally fired and pay back wages. Workers at the Tar Heel plant are still fighting for a union.

One representative asked Ludlum to evaluate how UFCW members conducted themselves during the Smithfield organizing drive after an opposing witness alleged unions were just as guilty of coercing workers to sign authorization cards. “The union did not make my decision on whether or not to support the union,” Ludlum replied. “The company made that decision for me.”

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was when a fellow worker broke his leg on the job. The next day, when I came to work, he was sitting in the break room with a full leg cast and crutches. I asked him what he was doing back at work so soon. He said he didn’t want to lose his job, and the company did not want to report to OSHA a lost work day due to injury.

“For weeks, I watched this man hobble through the parking lot and across the greasy, wet floors of the kill floor and cut departments to get back and forth to the livestock yard. Finllay one day, I approached the supervisors and asked them if the worker could park his car in a space near the livestock yard to avoid further injury. They told me ‘only managers can park there. He’s a worker.’ At that moment, a light clicked on for me.”

In his testimony, Ludlum also described the intimidation techniques used by Smithfield during the 1997 election. Ludlum was allowed to vote since he had a case pending with the NLRB.

“On both days of the 1997 election, Bladen County deputy sheriffs, dressed in battle gear with guns, lined the long driveway leading to the plant and guard house…As workers passed the lines of police, they saw company management standing with the head of the sheriff’s office.” The Board later ruled that Smithfield used the police as an intimidation tactic.

The congressional subcommittee also heard testimony from Ivo Camilo, a Blue Diamond Growers worker and ILWU member, and Teresa Joyce, a Cingular worker and CWA union member.