Just days after a federal judge denied the United Food and Commercial Workers' summary judgment motion in Smithfield Foods' racketeering suit against the union, the parties have announced a settlement. The settlement itself will remain sealed, but press coverage based on a joint statement indicates:

The nation's largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods, settled a racketeering and extortion lawsuit against labor organizers today and the two sides agreed to hold a union election at the world's largest hog slaughterhouse, both sides said.

In return, the United Food and Commercial Workers union agreed to end a publicity campaign against Smithfield that included calls for product boycotts to support its calls for an organizing election at the slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, N.C.

Regular readers of our blogs are familiar with the RICO suit filed by Smithfield, alleging that the elements of the union's corporate campaign constituted the predicate acts of extortion necessary to finding a racketeering violation.

Earlier this year, we commented extensively on this theory in Capital Research Center's Labor Watch, including a particularly prescient passage, if we do say so:

"Both sides of the labor-management divide must be watching these cases extremely closely," Borden says. "It is no secret that the corporate campaign is the current preferred method of organizers because it is far more successful in unionizing workplaces. It is widely viewed as the way of the future for union organizing."

If it appears that the courts will rule in favor of the employers, organized labor may seek a settlement. They will want to avoid a ruling that prohibits corporate campaign methods outright.

"Organized labor simply cannot afford an ultimate holding outlawing the corporate campaign," warns Borden.

It would seem the UFCW blinked on the eve of trial, although it may not be a total loss for the union. The parties have agreed to some form of election in the short-run, while longer term, the UFCW may simply be banking on EFCA rendering the entire issue moot sometime next year.

It will be interesting now to see how quickly and to what extent the SEIU and UNITE-HERE move to settle the RICO suits pending against them, filed by Wackenhut and Cintas, respectively....or whether management will get a definitive judicial word on the applicability of RICO in the context of corporate campaigns.

More on the issue:

- "Smithfield Foods, United Food and Commercial Workers reach settlement" - Triangle (NC) Business Journal

- "Smithfield and UFCW Settle RICO Suit" - Workplace Prof Blog

- "Smithfield drops RICO suit against union, OKs union vote." - Point Of Law