Oct. 29, 2021

Note: This story has been updated to include a response from Smithfield.

The head of the union for Smithfield workers in Sioux Falls has fired off a lengthy criticism of the work environment there, alleging conditions have led to record numbers of people quitting and injuries.

B.J. Motley, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 304A, which represents nearly 3,500 workers in South Dakota, said in a statement that the workers of Smithfield “have reached their limit on the amount of abuse they can tolerate” from the corporation.

“Like the rest of the country, we face the same shortage-of-worker challenges,” he said.

“However, where most companies are finding accommodations to make the workload easier for employees, Smithfield continues to speed lines of production, verbally abuse their employees, take away essential sanitation cleanness measures and completely neglect social distancing. In consequence, we are seeing record number of quits, injuries, grievances and overall unhappiness.”

Workers are tired, and their families are being affected by the “heartlessness of the situation,” he continued. The statement alleges workers are forced to come to work on weekends and be outsourced to areas other than their departments.

“All that our workers want is for the company to respect their very limited times with their families and treat them with the respect they deserve for being the essential workers that they are,” Motley said.

“Hopes were high as a new HR team came into the Sioux Falls facility, including a new HR director, Monica Derby. However, in the short while that this ‘new’ administration has been in place, we see that they are first and foremost there for the management team without little to no consideration of the hardworking production workers. We are trying to stay hopeful that the company does the right thing and fear we are reaching the end of a good-faith collaboration between the company and the union.”

In a written response, Smithfield said the union’s release to the media was the first it was hearing of the concerns and that it disagrees with the portrayal of the facilities.

“Worker safety and a supportive work environment are top priorities. We have consistently reduced health and safety incidents below industry averages,” it said.

“Last year, in the earliest days of the pandemic, we moved immediately – even before any direction from health officials – to implement worker safety measures. We invested $800 million to protect our workers in Sioux Falls and at other locations worldwide from the coronavirus. We remain in full compliance with all health and safety recommendations and are dedicating significant resources in an effort to vaccinate our entire workforce. Furthermore, we are in full compliance with our collective bargaining agreement in Sioux Falls. These claims by Local 304A are inaccurate and unfair.”