Hopes were crushed Monday for ending a 15-year battle between a labor union and Smithfield Packing Co.

Smithfield, which operates the world's largest pork slaughterhouse in Bladen County, had for weeks appeared on the verge of holding a union vote, but broke off talks after reaching an impasse.

"They would not come back with anything we could work with," Smithfield spokesman Dennis Pittman said of the union. "Apparently, it's their way or no way."

The company began negotiations with the United Food and Commercial Workers union in August, marking the first talks between the deadlocked sides in years.

The move sparked hopes that workers at the plant -- which employs more than 5,000 people in the Bladen County town of Tar Heel, about 85 miles south of Raleigh -- might soon get to decide whether they want a union. The union has been trying to organize the plant since it opened in 1992.

During the talks, the two sides agreed to allow employees to vote in a secret ballot election, but the sticking point was whether plant officials would openly oppose the union.

Smithfield wanted to lobby against a union, while the union wanted the company to remain neutral.

In two past elections held in the 1990s, the company was found to have improperly pressured employees to vote against a union.

In 2006, a federal appeals court ruled that before both elections the company had confiscated union materials, harassed employees, threatened wage freezes and fired some union supporters. According to the ruling, supervisors ordered one employee to stamp dead hogs with the words "Vote No."

Union officials have said that they fear similar harassment if a new election is held inside the plant. They declined to comment Monday, saying they preferred to let workers speak.

"The company needs to back off and let us vote," said Catrina McDonald, 24, a pro-union worker who skins hogs.

She said workers need a union because they are frequently injured, fired without reason and required to work six days a week. She said that, in five and a half months on the job, she has already suffered a repetitive stress injury to her wrist.

McDonald said she finds it troublesome that, in recent months, the company has begun showing employees an anti-union video and hanging posters comparing joining a union to entering a roach trap. The company acknowledges doing both, saying it is using tactics similar to the union's.

Oliver Hunt, another plant employee, said the company has made its anti-union views clear.

"They intimidate you from the door," said Hunt, 30, who was hired in February. "The first thing they told me was not to sign a union card."

Smithfield officials say they went to extreme lengths to assure the union that this election would be fair.

The company agreed to have the election monitored and the votes counted by a neutral party. It also agreed to give the union a list of all workers and to allow organizers to hold meetings inside the plant.

But plant officials said they also wanted to hold meetings to argue that a union wasn't necessary. They contend that they pay some of the highest factory wages in the area, starting at $9.60 an hour, and offer holiday pay and medical care in an on-site clinic. They suggested that both sides hand over campaign materials to the neutral observer for approval.

They say the union refused to accept the deal. Union officials declined to comment.

Joe Luter IV, president and chief executive officer of Smithfield Packing Co., said the refusal "signals to us that they have no intention of ever holding a union election at Tar Heel."

Pittman said the company desperately wants to hold an election and end the dispute with the union. But he said he thinks the union would rather continue publicly bashing Smithfield, because it intimidates other companies that the union wants to organize.

In the past year, the union has mounted a renewed nationwide campaign that includes frequent rallies outside stores that carry Smithfield products and protests against celebrity chef Paula Deen, who is paid to promote Smithfield pork.

"I think they're enjoying what they're doing," Pittman said, "which is using us as a punching bag."

Smithfield Packing vs. union

1992: Smithfield Packing Co. opens in Tar Heel; United Food and Commercial Workers Union begins campaign to organize plant.

1994: First union election held inside plant.

1995: National Labor Relations Board says the company improperly threatened and harassed employees during the election.

1997: Second union election held inside plant.

1998: National Labor Relations Board again says the company unfairly influenced the election; company appeals.

2006: After years of appeals, a federal appeals court rules that during both elections, pro-union workers were harassed and fired. Smithfield officials call for another election. Union announces start of a national campaign to unionize the plant.

AUGUST 2007: Union and company agree to talks.

OCTOBER 2007: Talks fall apart; no election scheduled.