An influential member of Smithfield Foods Inc.’s board of directors has resigned in protest of the company’s recently announced $250 million stock offering, Smithfield said Tuesday.

Still struggling with depressed hog prices, Smithfield Foods Inc. on Tuesday reported a $108 million loss for the first quarter of its fiscal year. It was the fourth time in the past five quarters that the world's largest pork processor and producer posted a loss. In June, Smithfield reported a $190 million loss for its 2009 fiscal year - its first annual loss since 1975.

WILLIAMSBURG Smithfield Foods Inc.'s packaged-meat business is generating robust earnings, but depressed prices for its live hogs continue to threaten the company's profitability, Smithfield's chief executive told shareholders Wednesday.

A Smithfield Foods Inc. subsidiary will lay off 117 workers at its Texas hog farms, according to a filing with the state. The layoffs, at Premium Standard Farms' sites in Dalhart, Texas, will begin by mid-October, the notice said. In other Smithfield news:

Smithfield Foods Inc. said Friday that its financial results for the recently completed quarter were "below the company's expectations."

C. Larry Pope, the president and CEO of Smithfield Foods Inc., vowed earlier this year to forgo most of his bonus money, given the company's economic hardships. He was true to his word. Pope's total compensation for fiscal 2009 declined nearly $2.6 million, falling to $2.3 million from almost $4.9 million in 2008, according to Smithfield's preliminary proxy statement, released Wednesday.

Smithfield Foods Inc., the biggest U.S. pork processor, said any drop in production caused by a fire at a Milwaukee plant will be made up at the company's other locations.

"We do have available capacity at other Smithfield facilities and will be able to make up any product shortfalls in short order," the Smithfield -based company said in a statement.

Workers at Smithfield Foods Inc.’s largest plant, in Tar Heel, N.C., have ratified their first labor contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers, the company and union announced today.

Smithfield Packing Co. and a labor union said Friday they agreed to a proposed contract that addresses wages, benefits and working conditions at the company's giant Tar Heel, N.C., meatpacking plant.

Smithfield Packing Co. and the United Food and Commercial Workers union have come to terms on a tentative contract for workers at its big plant in Tar Heel, N.C. The union has been fighting for about 15 years to unionize the plant's 5,000 workers. Workers narrowly approved being represented by the UFCW in a December vote overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.