This story begins with a contentious labor battle at an out-of-state company: Smithfield Foods, whose Tar Heel, N.C., hog-slaughtering plant—the largest in the world—is characterized by, in the words of union activists, "poverty wages, brutal conditions, crippling injuries." The labor movement, led by the United Food and Commercial Workers, has started a "Smithfield Justice" campaign (www.smithfieldjustice.com); supporters include presidential candidate John Edwards and the United Church of Christ, which has condemned the company for using intimidation and coercion to deter workers' attempts to form a union at the plant.

Dennis Pittman, a company spokesman, contends that wages (on average, $12.34 an hour) and benefits at the plant are competitive and conditions are good. There are already unions in half of Smithfield's 12 other plants, he says, and while the company doesn't think unions are necessary, it supports workers' rights to choose one. In fact, he says, Smithfield would like to see a secret-ballot election, governed by the National Labor Relations Board, to settle the matter at the plant in Tar Heel for good. (Smithfield details its positions at www.smithfieldfacts.com.)

The union, however, says it doesn't trust the company not to try to intimidate workers in the weeks prior to an election, and points out that the NLRB found the company guilty of violating workers' rights during two failed union drives in the '90s. UFCW wants a card-check election, in which workers simply sign a card if they want a union. Pittman objects that a card-check election wouldn't involve government oversight and doesn't allow workers to vote privately—creating, he says, the opportunity for union backers to use threats or bribes to get their way.

In the Boston area, union activists say, the group has pressured Stop and Shop and Shaw's to pull the Smithfield goods from its shelves. (Pittman says he knows of no markets pulling the company's products.) In Western Mass., the activist group Jobs With Justice wants Big Y to do the same.

And that's where the story becomes local. Activists say Big Y, the 55-store chain owned by the D'Amour family, has ignored their requests to meet to discuss the Smithfield issue.

Jon Weissman, coordinator of Western Mass. Jobs With Justice, says he's twice written to ask Donald and Charles D'Amour, Big Y's president and chairman, respectively, to meet with members of the local Smithfield committee, which includes clergy, politicians and community members. He's gotten no response.

The committee wants to meet with the D'Amours to explain its concerns and ask that they stop selling Smithfield foods. That wouldn't mean a profound change for the store; when activists surveyed supermarket shelves, they found Big Y carries just one line of Smithfield bacon. "It seemed like it should be a no-brainer," Weissman says. "It would be very easy for them to take it off the shelf."

It wouldn't be unheard of for Big Y to pull a product to make a social statement; this spring, the store stopped carrying salad dressing marketed by radio personality Don Imus after he made racist comments about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Claire D'Amour-Daley, Big Y's vice president for corporate affairs, did not respond to an interview request.

There's no love lost between organized labor and Big Y, which has managed to keep its stores union-free. Weissman suspects the store's lack of responsiveness in this case might have to do with a false rumor that United Food and Commercial Workers were planning to organize Big Y employees. "Now, Food and Commercial Workers would love to organize Big Y, but there's no plan to do that. This is not about softening the D'Amours [for a union drive]," Weissman says.

On Thursday, the committee and supporters plan to show up at Big Y's Springfield headquarters to ask in person for a meeting. If that doesn't work, Weissman says, the next step is to hold informational pickets outside Big Y stores.

mturner@valleyadvocate.com