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By Jesse Russell

After nearly a decade of waiting workers at a Smithfield Foods plant in North Carolina will receive a fair union election. A U.S. Court of Appeals court agreed this month with a lower courts decision that plant managers had committed “egregious and pervasive” labor law violations during two union elections - one in 1993 and one in 1997. The company was ordered to give the United Food and Commercial Workers a fair election. On the heels of the ruling Smithfield Foods CEO Joseph Luter the Third announced he would be retiring. He has led the pork and hog production company since 1975. The company does not plan to appeal and has promised to abide by National Labor Relations Board policies in future elections.

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