Smithfield Foods — long the target of an anti-corporate smear campaign by greedy union bosses looking for another buck — have decided they are mad as hell, and they are not going to take it anymore. They have launched a major counter-attack, filing a civil racketeering case against the union. Excerpts from Dow Jones:
The action 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, unlawful interference with current and prospective business relations and a publicly established illegal extortionate pressure campaign intended to drive Smithfield out of business unless the company agreed to meet (union) demands against its will,” Smithfield said in a news release announcing the action. It alleges “more than two years of malicious conduct against the company.” …
Smithfield said the union wants to force unionization of the Tar Heel employees “as a means of maintaining and increasing (its) power in the face of diminishing nationwide significance.”
This is a big deal. The employer community is starting to fight back. Hopefully it won’t be the last of these suits filed.
