The US meat processing giant Smithfield has said that no walkout occurred at its Tar Heel plant in North Carolina on Monday, which was Martin Luther King Jr Day, and that production continued as scheduled.

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Smithfield has said that it will allow employees at the pork processing facility to vote again on whether they want to make Martin Luther King Jr Day a paid holiday next year. Employees had previously voted not to make the day one of the company’s paid holidays. Plant employees receive eight paid holidays and 12 personal days each year.


“Dr King had a profound impact on our country, and a national holiday honouring his accomplishments is a fitting honour,” said Larry Johnson, vice president of operations. “We will let our employees decide if they wish to make Martin Luther King Jr Day a part of our holiday schedule next year.”


About 300 employees failed to show up for work on Monday, the company said, compared with an average of around 125. Smithfield said this is about the same number of employees who missed work last year on Martin Luther King Jr Day.


Pittman added that Smithfield had sponsored an inter-denominational breakfast meeting honouring Martin Luther King in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Monday. Some forty of the company’s hourly employees represented the company at the event, Smithfield said.

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Smithfield’s Tar Heel plant has been troubled by labour unrest in recent times. Around 1,000 employees walked off the job in November in protest against the firing of around 50 workers who the company said had failed to provide unverifiable identification information.


The workers were allowed back to work the next day after Smithfield agreed to give the employees 60 days to verify their credentials.