Women Working For Hog Producer Smithfield Foods Say #MeToo

Four women employed by pork industry giant Smithfield Foods say they were retaliated against by the company and three lost their jobs as a result of reporting sexual harassment in a case settled outside of court, last year. Additionally, a former supervisor in Smithfield’s Tar Heel, North Carolina plant filed a suit in 2013 alleging that her boss had harassed her for four years, though that case was dismissed in 2018.

In an exclusive story with In These Times, ten of twelve workers interviewed at the Smithfield Foods plant in Virginia said they witnessed acts of sexual harassment such as inappropriate touching, sexual commentary, and favoritism based on sex.

Smithfield Foods is the largest pork processor in the world – and a company that employs over 46,000 people in North Carolina. Harassment was overlooked, according to In These Times, as long as processing continued at a quick pace.

“Management, they said, valued supervisors who could meet high production quotas, regardless of how they treated workers,” In These Times reported.

Read more: https://indyweek.com/news/northcarolina/women-working-for-hog-producer-smithfield-foods-say-metoo/