Duke Students Against Sweatshops Smithfield Statement

Over the last decade and a half, the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina has been the site of numerous labor rights abuses. Plant management has repeatedly carried out targeted firings, physical assaults and intimidation, and false arrests to prevent democratic unionization. They have maintained a hostile and dangerous workplace characterized by (what the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals has termed) "intense and widespread coercion" and by large numbers of preventable injuries. Further, Smithfield management has carried out a program of racial polarization by segregating workers, by refusing to meet with NAACP officials to discuss conditions at the plant, and even by refusing to observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

These facts demand action: the Duke Community must condemn these human rights violations at the Smithfield plant in Tar Heel. And we demand action because the time has come when our refusal to stand up to these unfair practices amounts to no less than our tacit approval of these practices. The Duke University Mission Statement commits itself to providing an education "attending not only to [students'] intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participation as leaders in their communities." A university's consumer choices should reflect its moral beliefs. We therefore cannot in good conscience allow ourselves to be party to the mistreatment of workers at Smithfield's factory.

As one of the leading intellectual voices in the state and a nationally recognized institution, we have the unique and powerful opportunity to send a message to the Smithfield management and to the people of North Carolina. A decade ago, Duke was one of the first universities in the United States to commit to end sweatshop labor in the production of its logo apparel; today we ask Duke to once again call upon its ethical principles and to adopt a complete boycott of Smithfield products. For Duke to do anything less would simply be unjust.

We, the students, employees, alumni, and concerned members of the Duke Community request the following of the university:

1. The removal of Smithfield Foods products from the university.
2. The termination of operating contracts of dining contractors who refuse to honor a boycott of Smithfield Foods.
3. Written affirmation from the university and its dining operators that they will not use Smithfield Foods products until the abuses at Tar Heel, North Carolina end.
4. The agreement of Duke dining operators to allow for inspection by independent third-parties to verify their compliance.

We trust that the Duke administration will act with all due speed to carry out these necessary reforms.