After nearly two decades of a battle to unionize employees at the Smithfield Packing plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, employees voted pro-union by a narrow margin in December. Following the vote, talks between the company and the newly-founded United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1208 began, to work out the plant's first labor contract. Officials announced Friday that the two sides have reached a tentative agreement, and the contract is scheduled for a union vote next Tuesday and Wednesday. Neither side wanted to share details of the contract before all 5,000 employees had been informed, but a union spokeswoman said that the union leadership was recommending acceptance. Cornell ILR professor Richard Hurd, who had tracked the talks, says the quick agreement is a good sign for future relations.
See "Smithfield Packing, union agree on huge NC Plant, schedule vote next week", Emery P. Dalesio, Chicago Tribune, June 25, 2009