The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, the Washington D.C. NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference plan Thursday to join with injured Smithfield Foods workers to launch a series of bus and metro station advertisements in Washington, D.C.

The ads are intended to throw a spotlight on what the groups call worker abuse at Smithfield's pork processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C. The groups chose to target the D.C. area because it is a major Smithfield market, and because many of the District's Smithfield customers have ties to North Carolina, and may still have family in the state.

Part of the ads urge consumers to consider alternatives to buying Smithfield pork products.

Outside pressure

Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman was unmoved: "Basically it's another case of UFCW trying to use outside pressure in order to get Smithfield to let the UFCW represent employees without holding a secret ballot election conducted by the NLRB," he told Meatingplace. "This (ad campaign) could harm the people they claim to represent."

Still, he said, Smithfield plans to look into the individual cases of the injured employees that the campaign features.

The new ad campaign is part of the UFCW's ongoing "Justice at Smithfield" program. The union has been trying to gain a foothold at the facility for nearly 16 years.