NAACP president rebuffed on N.C. hog plant visit

RALEIGH (AP) — The president of the North Carolina NAACP was turned away Thursday as he tried to visit the Smithfield Foods hog slaughterhouse in Tar Heel.

The Reverend William Barber says he arrived at the plant with seven other people to talk to plant officials about working conditions that have been a focus of a union organizing campaign.

Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman says the company offered to meet with Barber at a neutral site to have what he called "a real good talk with each other." But Barber says the company's position was unacceptable.

Pittman says Barber and other ministers left the property when asked.

Smithfield has been engaged in a long public exchange with the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has been trying to organize the plant for more than a decade.