UFCW: Anatomy of an Anti-Corporate Campaign Smear

One of the most disturbing strategies union officials employ to gain new members is the anti-corporate campaign, which essentially smears a company’s reputation. The idea is to apply enough pressure to make the company cave and hand over its employees to the union. A common tactic in these campaigns is to have a small group of employees complain about working conditions to make the company look bad.

That’s what’s been going on in Tar Heel, North Carolina. Down there UFCW officials are doing anything they can to organize employees of Smithfield (except allow employees to vote in a secret ballot election). So it’s notable that some recent — and serious — charges against the company by union activists have been shown to be B.S. The AP reports:

Inspectors from the state Department of Labor have found that complaints about drinking water and broken equipment at the world’s largest hog slaughterhouse are unfounded, the company said Wednesday.

Sixteen workers at the Smithfield Packing Co. plant in Tar Heel complained to the department’s Occupational Safety & Health Division last month, saying they didn’t have adequate access to sanitary drinking water. The workers also said about a fourth of the some 200 gates in the livestock area were broken and could cause injury.