Smithfield Packing Co. is trying to integrate two sets of employees represented by separate unions and working under separate contracts as it closes one pork processing plant in Smithfield, Va., to the one next door, spokesman Dennis Pittman confirmed to Meatingplace.

As part of its parent company's recently announced restructuring, Smithfield Packing is closing its South plant over the next several months and transferring some 750 of its 1,375 workers to the North plant. The South workers are represented by the Laborers International Union of North America, and the North plant's 1,600 workers are represented by the Teamsters.

Smithfield, the Daily Press reported, aims to join all the workers under the Teamsters and preserve their union seniority and associated pay and benefits. Negotiations are to begin within the next month, company officials said.

"We're taking the approach that the South facility is being shut down, and those employees who transfer will be employees at the North Plant and part of the Teamsters union with their seniority intact," the newspaper quoted Jeff Gough, Smithfield's vice president of human relations, as saying.

The company wants to eliminate the Laborers in Smithfield, which would enable it to more efficiently negotiate with its workers.

The transition is expected to be completed in January. Gough said the company plans to spend $25 million on a construction project that will allow it to increase capacity at the North facility to accommodate additional workers and production lines.

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