Thomas Mills points out the dog that didn't bark.

In a guest editorial in the N&O today, the Democratic political consultant notes labor's big stories in North Carolina this year: the State Employees Association of N.C. joining SEIU, workers at a Tar Heel hog processor voting to unionize and ads attacking Sen.-elect Kay Hagan for supporting card check.

The response was as remarkable as the victories themselves. The news media basically shrugged. Both events got ample and fair coverage, but there was little editorializing and no big stories. The general public took little notice. Even Smithfield executives struck a conciliatory tone, calling the election in Tar Heel fair and saying they look forward to working together.

During the race between Hagan and Dole, anti-union groups barraged voters with phone calls and mailings warning them that Hagan's election would usher in a new age of unionism that would threaten the economy and workers' independence. Hagan beat Dole by over 8 percentage points, indicating that voters either didn't believe it or, more significantly, didn't care.

Mills, whose firm has represented SEIU, said that the lack of a strong reaction against unions is a sign that public opinion is shifting here. 

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union gave $116,500 in 2008.

The food workers union gave $104,000 to the N.C. Democratic Party, $8,000 to Treasurer-elect Janet Cowell, $4,000 to Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, and $500 to state Sen.-elect Josh Stein.

Labor unions last week gave $730,000 to the N.C. Democratic Party, which in turn gave large contributions to the party's nominee for governor.

Campaign finance reports show that the state Democratic Party received $730,000 from three union political action committees. The party then turned around and gave Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue's campaign an $875,000 contribution and spent $245,000 to send mailers on her behalf. That infusion of cash represents a quarter of the $4.6 million Perdue raised in the last three months.

Detailed campaign finance reports for the last three months are not yet publicly available. The donations were included in required 48-hour reports over the last week.

More after the jump.

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George Soros did not "create" Majority Action.

Under the Dome has previously described the billionaire financier as the founder of the 527 organization currently running a TV ad attacking U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole. That is incorrect.

The group was founded in 2005 by Democratic political consultants Mark Longabaugh and Donnie Fowler. It currently is run by Longabaugh and consultants Bill Buck and Meghan Gaffney. 

Initial funding for the group came from the United Food & Commercial Workers Union and the Service Employees International Union as well as wealthy donors such as Texas philanthropist Linda Pritzker, New York apartment manager Adam Rose and Soros.

According to forms filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Soros gave $170,000 in 2006, making him the second largest donor after the SEIU, which gave $300,000. 

Because of Soros' backing, Majority Action has often been lumped in with a number of other 527 organizations that he helped fund in the 2006 cycle.

However, he has not donated to the group since 2006.

Dome regrets the error. 

Two labor groups recently donated to Majority Action.

The Service Employees International Union's Political Education and Action Fund gave $200,000 in May, the SEIU's NYS Political Action Fund gave $150,000 in June and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union gave $100,000 in June.

A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole argued that the donations are being used by Majority Action — and by extension, the Kay Hagan campaign — to pay for issue ads attacking Dole.

"Her campaign is in the pocket of Big Labor," argued Dole spokesman Hogan Gidley.

But Bill Buck, executive director of Majority Action, said that there was no direct tie between the two unions and the Dole ads.

"They have contributed to Majority Action, but they can't make donations that are tied to an ad," he said.

The Hagan campaign said they have no connection to the Majority Action ads. 

Mark McCullough, a spokesman for the SEIU, also disputed Dole's attempt to link a visit by the Democrat to the AFL-CIO's annual executive meeting in Chicago Monday to the Majority Action ad.

He noted that the SEIU and the UFCW are members of the Change to Win Federation, which was created in 2005 as an alternative to the AFL-CIO coalition.

Janet Cowell received $663,403 in contributions by the end of June.

The Democratic nominee for state treasurer received $248,162 in contributions during the second quarter of the year, according to her most recent campaign finance report.

Major donors included N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences executive director Elizabeth Bennett, investment manager Leah Bergman, financial consultant Eugene Cahalan, Crandall Bowles, SAS co-founder John Sall and real estate developer Smedes York.

She also received donations from political action committees for the United Food and Commercial Workers union, UNITE HERE, the AFL-CIO, EMILY's List and the Conservation Council of North Carolina.

She also spent $71,890, leaving her with $197,133 in cash on hand. 

Will Smithfield hams get pulled from the shelves? 

The Washington, D.C., City Council today will talk about whether to ask area supermarkets to stop stocking bacon, ham and other foods from a North Carolina company that some say mistreats its workers.

Eight members of the 13-member council plan to introduce a Sense of the Council resolution accusing Smithfield Foods of creating an environment of “intimidation and fear for workers who desperately want a voice on the job” at its slaughterhouse and meat-packing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., Barb Barrett reports.

The City Council resolution will be referred to committee, which will later hold a hearing before casting a vote.

The resolution is part of a continuing public relations effort by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to criticize Smithfield. The union has been trying to organize the plant in Tar Heel for years and has been publicizing worker injuries and what it calls intimidation practices against workers there.

A similar resolution passed last fall in Prince George's County, Md., a Washington suburb. The union also has launched a $200,000 advertising campaign against Smithfield with ads on area buses and in the subway.

Smithfield defends its record and says it is the union, not the company, that has intimidated workers.

The company also owns a meat-packing plant in nearby Landover, Md., which is unionized.

Smithfield Packing accused a union of "giving consumers false information" with an advertising campaign launched today in the Washington, D.C., region against the pork giant.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union and its Smithfield Justice Campaign is putting banner ads in the subway and on city buses, and also plans to run television and radio ads in Washington and nearby Prince George's County, Md.

The ads accuse Smithfield of abusing workers at its plant in Tar Heel, N.C., which also is where UFCW has been trying to organize workers, Barb Barrett reports.

Smithfield spokeswoman Dennis Pittman said in a release today that the union should allow a secret-ballot vote — Smithfield's preferred voting method — for workers if it wants a union.

"Smithfield is not anti-union," the company release said, adding that 67 percent of its employees corporate-wide are covered by collective bargaining agreements.

"These tactics can only hurt the employees who work there," Pittman said of the ads. "We call on the UFCW to stop its pressure campaign."

The United Food and Commercial Workers union today launches its Washington, D.C.,-region advertising campaign against Smithfield Packing, the company that runs the world's largest meat-processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C.

A coalition that includes the union's Smithfield Justice Campaign is plastering ads in the Washington subway and on city buses, and running television commercials in Washington and nearby Prince George's County, Md., Barb Barrett reports.

Although the ads almost certainly may be seen by legislative staffers working on Capitol Hill, the union says the ads are meant to target largely African-American consumers with close family ties to the rural black communities in North Carolina. The Prince George's County Council passed a resolution in November offering support to Tar Heel workers.

The union charges that Smithfield has intimidated workers and blocked efforts to organize workers at the Tar Heel plant.

Smithfield counters that its plant is just as safe as union-run plants in other states. It also says the union — not Smithfield — is intimidating workers.

Among the workers featured in the ads is Roscoe Bell, a former hog herder at Smithfield who was trampled a year ago.