Workers at Smithfield: Like hogs to slaughter - North Carolina

“If you needed any evidence that we are at a moral, economic and political impasse over immigration, just review this month’s walkout by more than 1,000 workers at Smithfield Packing’s hog slaughtering plant in Tar Heel. It’s the latest collision between an industry built on cheap labor, a dysfunctional immigration system, and homeland security policies drafted in a reality-proof bubble.

Protesting immigration screenings that resulted in the firing of 50 workers and put 600 others on notice that their information was suspect, the mass walkout and subsequent picketing at Tar Heel is being billed as a fight over illegal immigrants. While immigration is a part of the mess, the plant’s long history of harassment, intimidation and violations of worker rights laid the groundwork for the walkout.”

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