UFCW Unionize North Carolina Plant

The media has enjoyed bashing the UAW for the problems with the auto-industry in Detroit, and little has been said about the recent victory of the United Food and Commerical Workers at Smithfield pork packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina.  With 5,000 workers, the plant in the largest meat-packing plant in the world, and the victory for the UFCW marks one of labor's major victories.  Although the struggle and occupation at Republic was important for the way it galvanized attention, perhaps this victory at the Smithfield plant will be remembered in the future as a crucial victory in which workers began to re-organize and re-assert themselves at work.