RICHMOND, Va. - A federal judge on Tuesday gave the go-ahead to Smithfield Foods Inc.’s racketeering lawsuit against a union that’s waged a lengthy campaign to organize thousands of workers at the company’s massive hog slaughterhouse in rural North Carolina.

U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne turned away the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union’s efforts to dismiss Smithfield’s lawsuit, but told Smithfield lawyers that under the law, the company must specifically allege how the union would use proceeds gained as a result of its activities — which the company hadn’t done in its original complaint brought in October against the UFCW, its local chapter and several other defendants.

In its lawsuit, the Smithfield-based meat company alleges that the defendants violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations statute, which originally was designed to fight organized crime. The company alleges that the union’s so-called “smear campaign” involving its efforts to unionize Smithfield’s Tar Heel, N.C., plant amounts to extortion, taking away Smithfield’s intangible property — the ability to conduct business the way it chooses.

“They’re prepared to put you out of business if you don’t succumb to their demands,” which is the definition of extortion, Thomas G. Slater argued. He also said that that once the company has to recognize the union, Smithfield will have to change the fundamental way it does business, and would put the company at a distinct disadvantage, possibly in the form of higher salaries, increased benefits and other enhancements.

In a statement, Smithfield said the ruling “is a pivotal step toward upholding the law, protecting the rights of Smithfield’s workers, and preventing further damage to Smithfield’s business.”

Telephone messages left Tuesday evening for Gene Bruskin, who is leading UFCW’s efforts to organize the Tar Heel plant, and Leila McDowell, another union organizer, were not immediately returned.

Robert Weinberg, a lawyer representing the union, argued unsuccessfully that Payne should dismiss the lawsuit, saying that Smithfield couldn’t prove how union activities amount to extortion because the company has failed to show how the union and other defendants deprived it of actual property.

Weinberg argued that the UFCW’s only goal is to secure voluntary union recognition for the 4,650 workers at the plant, the world’s largest hog-slaughtering operation.

“There isn’t any other objective,” he said.

He also argued that Smithfield was unable to show that the defendants conspired to engage in an ongoing pattern of extortion.

Slater said that the UFCW and affiliated groups and organizers have damaged Smithfield with a campaign to highlight what the groups say are unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, racism at Smithfield plants and the poor treatment of employees — all allegations that he denied. He also alleged that Southern-cooking guru Paula Deen was barred from mentioning Smithfield by name when she appeared on the Oprah Winfrey’s talk show, costing the company valuable name exposure and subsequent financial gain.

Weinberg said that Smithfield should address such issues by applying defamation statutes, not anti-racketeering measures.

Smithfield filed its lawsuit against the union Oct. 17, two days after the company called off talks aimed at holding an organizing election at Tar Heel, which the UFCW has tried to unionize since the slaughterhouse opened in 1992.

Bruskin has said previously that the timing of the lawsuit proves that Smithfield never intended to work with the union.

Earlier this year Smithfield reached a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board and agreed to pay $1.1 million in back wages, plus interest, to workers it fired during past union-organizing elections. A federal appeals court ruled in 2006 that the company improperly influenced elections in 1993 and 1997.

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