Corporate Bullying Tactics??

There's a very interesting article in the February 5, 2008 issue of the New York Times which describes a tactic being used by corporate giant Smithfield Foods. Smithfield is suing the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), alleging racketeering - because UFCW has been exposing "labour, environmental and safety issues" at Smithfield to the public. And Smithfield doesn't like it.

The New York Times article is captioned: "A Corporate View of Mafia Tactics: Protesting, Lobbying and Citing Upton Sinclair".

Excerpt below:

"Smithfield Foods, which raises, kills and processes more pigs than any company on earth, does not like some of the things a union has been saying about conditions at its giant slaughterhouse in Tar Heel, N.C., where 4,650 people work and 32,000 hogs die every day.

So Smithfield has filed a racketeering lawsuit against the union, on the theory that speaking out about labor, environmental and safety issues in order to pressure the company to unionize amounts to extortion like that used by organized crime."

More and more people, including MSNBC's Keith Olbermann (see 2:30 point on the linked video) are suggesting that what we are witnessing is actually fascism. Here's an interesting definition: What is Fascism?

What are we witnessing here: Corporate Bullying, or Facsism?