US meat processor Smithfield Foods is suing the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCWU) alleging that it has used “illegal extortionate pressure” to drive the company out of business in its bid to unionise the company’s pork-processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.
UFCWU has for many years been attempting to represent some 4,650 Smithfield employees at Smithfield’s largest pork plant.
Smithfield has brought the most unusual lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Richmond, Virginia, under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. The company said it was seeking “relief to “hinder future attempts by the union to further damage” its business.
Smithfield accuses the union of “a public smear campaign, frivolous regulatory investigations, the communication of false statements to analysts intended to reduce Smithfield’s stock price” and other actions designed to “drive Smithfield out of business unless the company agreed to meet (union) demands against its will”.
The lawsuit follows the breakdown of negotiations to try to find a mutually agreed format for the plant’s workers to vote on whether to unionise.
Gene Bruskin, director of the union’s campaign, said it was a “shame that the company is willing to spend millions of dollars on high-priced lawyers to fight the case rather than spending money to provide basic improvements for workers”.
Go deeper with GlobalData
