Former Smithfield Foods union treasurer sentenced for spending dues on guns, groceries

The former secretary-treasurer of the union representing workers at the Smithfield Foods plant will serve six months in prison for embezzling tens of thousands of dollars in union dues.

“If there was anyone here who was affected, I’m sorry,” Terry Slaughter said as he was sentenced Wednesday in the federal courtroom. “It hurts me more that I hurt them (union workers) and my family.”

In addition to his prison time, Slaughter, 49, was ordered to pay $63,315.18 in restitution, according to a press release from the Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty to the embezzlement charges last year.

He was elected secretary-treasurer of the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local Union 1208 union in 2011.

Local 1208 has 3,600 active members in North and South Carolina. Slaughter had financial oversight over the union’s expenses, benefits and payroll and was responsible for maintaining meetings’ minutes, according to a 2019 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

A 2015 audit of Local 1208 revealed Slaughter embezzled $62,315.38 between January 2012 and March 2015 and tried to hide the theft by destroying monthly meetings’ minutes, the release stated.

The prosecutor during Slaughter’s plea hearing said Slaughter used union money to buy firearms, electronics, furniture, groceries, and for unauthorized travel reimbursements, according to court transcripts.

During Wednesday’s sentencing, defense attorney Christopher Locascio argued for probation only so Slaughter could continue working with a moving company, and potentially get another job to help pay the restitution. He said Slaughter and his wife had become therapeutic foster parents to a 10-year-old.

“He’s got a lifetime of good work,” Locascio said.

Prosecutor Tobin W. Lathan, however, stressed the magnitude of the crime while acknowledging that Keith Ludlum, the former president of Local 1208, committed more serious crimes.

“It was a free for all,” he said.

Keith Ludlum

Lathan said Slaughter was initially dishonest about the embezzlement but eventually provided information about Ludlum.

Ludlum pleaded guilty last month to the embezzlement of more than $250,000 of union money, The News & Observer reported.

An indictment says he spent the money on a trip to the Dominican Republic, a trip to Sea World in Florida, Honda all-terrain vehicles, a semi-automatic handgun and personal car insurance.

During sentencing, Lathan said Ludlum bought marijuana and rented several cars with union money.

Smithfield’s Bladen County pork plant is the world’s largest, employing nearly 5,000 and processing more than 30,000 hogs a day, according to the company.

The slaughterhouse unionized in 2008 with a narrow vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers International, or UFCW, as a local chapter. The vote capped a 15-year-effort fueled by workers’ complaints over injuries, accidents and other conditions, the N&O has reported.

Staff writer Josh Shaffer contributed to this story.

This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 5:23 PM.