By Doug Cunningham

Smithfield Foods workers and the United Food and Commercial Workers union at the hog processing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina have agreed to an NAACP call to meet with the company in a new effort to resolve long-standing issues. Smithfield has a long history of anti-union illegal actions, including beating, intimidating , threatening, illegally firing and using racial epithets against workers. If Smithfield is willing to do it, the workers will try to work out a fair process that safeguards workers’ rights in a new union election at the company.