Word: plant
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Chatham Islands. Kahuitara Point on Pitt Island in this Pacific Ocean chain is the first populated place on the planet to see the sun rise. You could do worse. The Chathams are known for their excellent fishing, wild scenery and easygoing lifestyle. They are also home to about 40 plant, 18 bird and 150 insect species found nowhere else on earth...
...Smithfield, the trouble began when the company voluntarily entered into a program with the Immigration Customs and Enforcement agency to review Social Security numbers of workers, after immigration agents raided a plant in Virginia and found several undocumented workers. About 500 to 600 workers at the Tar Heel plant were found to have Social Security numbers that could not be verified, and Smithfield fired the workers. The workers argued that the company did not give them enough time to resolve their Social Security problems. (Not every person with Social Security problems was illegal; some numbers may not have matched because...
...Latino immigrant workers at Smithfield, the world's largest hog-processing plant, are not union members. But a month ago nearly 1,000 of them walked off the job for two days, protesting hundreds of recent firings in a crackdown on undocumented workers. The company quickly capitulated and agreed to rehire the workers, and made other concessions, like meeting with the workers' representatives and agreeing that no one would be disciplined for the walkout...
...been notified felt like death-row inmates waiting for their turn," says Eduardo Pe?a, the lead Smithfield union organizer for the United Food Commercial Workers Union. "So, people said, 'This is it.'" The union says it did not organize the job walkoff last month, which brought the plant - which slaughters more than 30,000 hogs a day - to a standstill. Pittman downplayed the impact the walkout had on the plant saying it reduced their productively by about 25%. And while the workers have won a stay, the company says it is only temporary unless they can fix their Social Security...
...Smithfield has given Vargas and other union organizers confidence they can make more inroads with immigrant workers. "We are the same people from the same places in Mexico," Vargas says. "People have a lot of trust in us. All my family, my wife, my cousins, they work in the plant, and now that I work for the union, they trust me." He adds: "I think now they are understanding how to reach Latinos, because, look, I am Latino, I can say that the law says it doesn't matter if you are undocumented, you have the same rights...