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Smithfield workers protest MLK holiday decision
TAR HEEL, N.C. (AP)--Some workers at the huge Smithfield Foods hog slaughtering plant in North Carolina missed the first shift Jan. 15 as the company and a union waited to gauge the effect of a threatened walkout. Workers had vowed to walk off the job at the plant in Tar Heel or not come to work because the company wouldn't give them the Martin Luther King holiday as a paid day off. The company said it wasn't given time by the workers and union the previous week to consider the request. Company spokesman Dennis Pittman said there was no sign of a mass walkout at the start of the 7:30 a.m. shift. About 200 to 250 workers were out on a shift of about 2,500. Pittman said that is about 100 or so more than normal at the plant about 80 miles southeast of Raleigh. "All the departments are running," Pittman said, adding that the next shift was at 1:30 p.m. The company gives each worker 12 personal days a year besides vacation and holidays, Pittman said.
0 None None Date: 2/16/07
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