Former Smithfield Packing worker shares
experiences
Natasha Nader / News Editor
When Lorena Gomez Ramos left her native country of Honduras
with her family to work in North Carolina, she never expected
her hopes for the "American dream" would be
brutally rebuffed.
"I was hoping for the 'American dream,' just
like everyone else who comes across the border," Ramos
told the packed lecture hall in McMichael on March 2.
"The people who go to America and come back never say
anything about going to a plant and being treated like a
slave. They only tell us the good things that make us
come here."
Ramos began working at the Smithfield Packaging Company in
Tar Heel, N.C., in 1999. The plant is the largest hog
slaughter and pork processing facility in the world and
employs 6,000 workers.
In 2004, the company's police arrested Ramos and her
husband, both active union supporters and organizers, and
falsely charged them with arson. The couple was taken
to the company's holding cell, inside of the plant, where
they were told there was evidence that they had tried to set
the building on fire.
They were told to sign some documents, but the couple
refused, because they didn't know what they said. Ramos
was hit in the face by a company police officer and was told
she didn't have any rights. They were then given an
ultimatum: if they didn't sign the papers, they would be
sent to jail, a scare tactic she said the company often used.
"The interpreter was saying, 'Sign for your own
good. Don't you want to go home and see your
kids?'" Ramos said, who was concerned about her kids
being home alone.
They stayed for two days in jail until they were able to
come up with $15,000 bail. The case was dropped due to lack
of evidence, and Ramos quit Smithfield immediately after the
arrest. She is currently engaged in a lawsuit against the
company for defamation.
"I felt humiliated," she said. "People would
make fun of me."
Since the incident, Ramos has been an organizer with the
United Food and Commercial Workers and is trying to stop the
repression against workers' rights at Smithfield.
"The meat (we package) is more important than us as
human beings," she said as she shared her accounts of
working in the plant.
Because workers generally do not receive training and the
production lines move so quickly, many injuries occur. Ramos
said people are being killed, hurt and mutilated in
accidents. Workers are sometimes fired for having accidents
or right before their vacation time is coming up.
"When you hurt one hand, they force you to work with
the other," Ramos said, as was the case for her. She got
her hand stuck in a conveyer belt for five minutes until
mechanics came to disassemble it so she could remove her
hand. Immediately after she was expected to go back to
work, using her other hand to perform her tasks.
"We sometimes feel like we're working in a jail
because there are police officers watching everything you
do," Ramos said. She says the supervisors constantly
yelled and cursed and there was a lot of fear among workers.
"They tried to separate different races and tried to
put workers from different races against each other,"
she said.
About 65 percent of the workers are Latino, 25 percent are
black and 10 percent are white or American Indian.
Ramos addressed the audience in Spanish and Eduardo Pena,
assistant director for the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union (UFCW), translated her story. The audience was also
encouraged to ask questions in Spanish.
Gene Bruskin, longtime labor activist and campaign director,
spoke after Ramos. He shared general information about
Smithfield Packaging Company, the law regarding unions and
said the message needs to be given to Smithfield that what
they are doing is not acceptable.
The event was sponsored by Elon University Students for
Peace and Justice (SfPJ). SfPJ President Todd Ruffner
said the group supports the campaign and hopes there will be
action in the future and that people will support the cause
after seeing Ramos.
"People like Lorena are the heart of the labor
movement, in the United States especially, and having Ramos
speak out is a huge step towards fair labor standards,"
he said. Ruffner also said he wants workers' rights
to be recognized by Elon as a major issue in today's
society that cannot be ignored.
"Her message plays a huge role in getting this issue
into the public eye and working towards unionization and
better treatment all over North Carolina and the United
States," he said.
Contact Natasha Nader at pendulum@elon.edu or
278-7247.
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Natasha Nader /
Photographer
Graphic courtesy of United Food and Commerical
Workers