Immigration raids may have paved the way for unionization of America's largest pork plant

The recent unionization of the largest pork processing plant in the U.S., Smithfield Foods' plant in Tar Heel, N.C., may have been driven by immigration raids that purged the plant of undocumented workers wary of the idea.

"The 2007 raids purged the Bladen County plant of illegal Hispanic workers, and left behind a majority of native workers more likely to support unionization," writes Kristin Collins of The News & Observer of Raleigh. "According to the company, the share of Hispanic workers has shrunk from about half in early 2007 to one quarter today. Black people now make up 54 percent of the plant's work force. ... Labor experts say blacks are traditionally more supportive of unions than other races or ethnic groups."

A pro-union employee who is a U.S. citizen of Dominican descent told Collins that the raids left even legal workers at the 5,000-employee plant "too frightened to speak up for unionization," as Collins put it. But company and union officials dismissed the ethincity factor. A United Food and Commercial Workers spokesman "said the key to the union victory was not the exodus of Hispanics, but bridging the divides between races," Collins writes. (Read more)