UFCW Helps End Firings at Smithfield's Tar Heel Plant

I haven't been as responsive as I'd like about issues that matter to me. I really hate how my life gets in the way of the issues that matter to me. One of the issues I wanted to address was the Walk Out at Smithfield.

Smithfield used social security data to fire employees for immigration issues, so a few hundred employees walked out in protest.

The UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) represents employees in other Smithfield locations, their "contract language provides for a systematic and constructive process for workers and the employer to resolve issues such as immigration and work status." Unfortunately, there is no union at the Smithfield Tar Heel North Carolina plant. Instead of having the UFCW negotiating a contract that would have protected the workers from these mass layoffs and firings, the workers had to go elsewhere.

Elsewhere? Why, oh why do workers who want unions have to walk through FIRE to get them?

The elsewhere in this story happened to be the Catholic Church and its attorneys. However, UFCW was still in the mix and worked with a combination of "elsewhere" members to bring together an agreement to help the workers.

You can see the final agreement HERE .