Union Fight Nears an End at World's Largest Hog Slaughterhouse

The 15-year battle between Smithfield Packaging Co. and the union that engineered a mass walkout at the world's largest hog-slaughtering plant, in part, over workers' compensation issues appears to be nearing an end.Smithfield and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) International have announced a tentative agreement to accept a union contract to cover the estimated 4,500 workers at the Tar Heel, N.C., plant, where more than 1,000 workers walked out in November 2006.UFCW said voting will be held today and Wednesday 1 at the plant, where workers voted to unionize last December....