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February 8, Smithfield Tar Heel worker Keith Ludlum testified in support of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions. 

In a comprehensive testimony of Smithfield company abuses and the flaws of the NLRB election process, Keith shed light on the urgent necessity of the Employee Free Choice Act. The Act would allow employees to choose to follow the “voluntary recognition” method of organizing where workers choose union representation through a process in which a majority signs cards indicating their support.

Under the current system of secret ballot elections, when workers decide they want to have union representation the company can drag the process out for years through campaigns of intimidation, coercion and illegal and unfair firings.  EFCA aims to change that process.  Under EFCA, employees sign cards indicating support for the union and when a majority is reached, the employer is required to recognize the union. 

In 1994, Keith was fired by Smithfield for trying to organize a union. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) filed a claim on behalf of Keith and the other workers unfairly terminated for union activities with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).  In 2000,the NLRB issued a decision finding massive violations of labor law and that Smithfield created an “atmosphere of intimidation and coercion” in order to prevent the formation of a union. 

In 2006, after years of Keith’s case being tied up in the courts, the NLRB ordered he be reinstated in his previous job and the Smithfield pay back wages.  Determined to fight injustices in the plant, Keith returned to Smithfield leaving behind a secure, well-paid job. 

During yesterday’s hearing, Keith was questioned by one representative as to why he decided to fight for a union.  He replied:

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was when a fellow worker broke his leg on the job. The next day, when I came to work, he was sitting in the break room with a full leg cast and crutches. I asked him what he was doing back at work so soon. He said he didn’t want to lose his job, and the company did not want to report to OSHA a lost work day due to injury.

For weeks, I watched this man hobble through the parking lot and across the greasy, wet floors of the kill floor and cut departments to get back and forth to the livestock yard. Finally one day, I approached the supervisors and asked them if the worker could park his car in a space near the livestock yard to avoid further injury. They told me ‘only managers can park there. He’s a worker.’ At that moment, a light clicked on for me.”

Keith also described the scene of the 1997 election at Smithfield:

“On both days of the 1997 election, Bladen County deputy sheriffs, dressed in battle gear with guns, lined the long driveway leading to the plant and guard house…As workers passed the lines of police, they saw company management standing with the head of the sheriff’s office.” The NLRB later ruled that Smithfield did indeed use the police as an intimidation tactic.

Keith was joined by Ivo Camilo, a Blue Diamond Growers worker and ILWU member, and Teresa Joyce, a Cingular worker and CWA union member in providing testimony at the congressional subcommittee.   

This video was videotaped by the staff of UFCW during Keith Ludlum's testmony.