On Thursday, Food Processors Local 1046 in Smithfield, Va., filed three charges against Smithfield Foods, saying it had violated terms of the National Labor Relations Act, reported the Daily Press based in Newport News, Va.

The Food Processors is the local chapter of the Laborers International Union of North America, and represents employees of the company's South plant in Smithfield. The company plans to shut down that plant over the next several months and transfer a little over half of its employees to other production sites, including the North plant next door, whose employees are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

As part of the process, the Laborers would be eliminated from the company's ranks.

The Laborers haven't agreed to the terms of the transfer yet, and officials said they object to the idea of folding their membership into the Teamsters, the Daily Press reported. Rather, because the employees transferred from the South plant would be doing different work from those who have been working next door, the workers at that site should continue to be represented by the two unions.

In the papers filed with the National Labor Relations Board, the union said that Smithfield management is bargaining with the Teamsters for employees represented by the Laborers. Further, the charges allege, Smithfield has refused to bargain with the Laborers over working conditions at the South plant because they belong to Local 1046.

Jeff Gough, Smithfield's vice president of human resources, is reported in the newspaper as saying the company has continued to negotiate with the Laborers, and that it planned to meet with union leadership again soon.

Smithfield plans to begin transferring workers from its South plant next week, despite the union's resistance, and has reached an initial agreement with the Teamsters to represent the Laborers transferring from the South plant, Gough told the Daily Press.

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