Union Workers Approve Long-Awaited Contract At Smithfield
News, Wilkes, Wilkes County, Wilkesboro
Workers at the world’s largest pork slaughterhouse in rural North Carolina have agreed on a four-year contract with a Smithfield Foods subsidiary.
Workers at the Smithfield Packing plant in the Bladen County town of Tar Heel accepted the company’s contract offer Wednesday after two days of voting.
Smithfield’s initial contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers includes wage increases of 40 cents an hour for three years and 30 cents an hour in the fourth year. Members of the union’s contract bargaining committee say starting pay at the plant is about $10 an hour.
The contract effects about 5,000 workers in the country’s least-unionized state.
The deal ends a 16-year dispute between the UFCW and Smithfield over union organizing efforts
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Wilkes County News @ July 2, 2009
