U.S. Labor Laws Broken: 15 Years and Still No Union For Smithfield Workers

Sheriff's deputies with guns and battle gear lined the long driveway leading to the Smithfield hog slaughter and pork processing plant the day Keith Ludlum and his co-workers turned out to vote for a union. Inside the plant, supervisors and company officials lined the hallways, chanting, "No Union, No Union."

Ludlum, a Desert Storm veteran, had never given unions a thought until he went to work in 1993 at Smithfield's Tar Heel, N.C., plant and saw "dangerous, inhumane conditions" every day. He said many workers were badly injured, then fired.

Despite NLRB charges after the election and the CEO's promises that a new election would be fair, nothing changed. While ballots were being counted in the second union representation election, Ludlum said the lights went out; when the power returned a company official was standing over the ballot box. At a trial in 2000, an NLRB judge found the company guilty of massive labor law violations, including a charge that they'd forced workers to stamp "Vote No" on hogs being processed.

Fifteen years after the organizing drive with the United Food and Commercial Workers began, legal battles continue and workers still don't have a union. Testifying before a U.S. House labor subcommittee hearing in 2007, Ludlum said the Employee Free Choice Act is the workers' only hope.