The Tar Heel plant is the largest–and one of the most profitable–pork slaughterhouses in the world. Approximately 32,000 hogs a day are slaughtered–one every two seconds on each eight-hour shift.

In fiscal year 2006, Smithfield’s worldwide operations generated sales of $11.4 billion and net profits of $172.7 million. Those profits, according to workers, union activists and human rights organizations, are built on a continued legacy of brutal conditions–including low wages, long hours, few benefits, dangerous working conditions, anti-union harassment and management-fostered racism.

According to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the base wage for workers at the nonunion Tar Heel plant is just $8.60 an hour for some of the most dangerous work in the country–and Smithfield has a reported yearly turnover rate of nearly 100 percent.