N.C. Tobacco Farm Workers March on R.J. Reynolds for a Voice at Work

Source from:  blog.aflcio.org 11/01/2007

Katrina Blomdahl, AFL-CIO Voice@Work communications specialist, describes a rally backing the nearly 25,000 tobacco farm workers in North Carolina and their efforts to win justice on the job. Nearly 400 tobacco farm workers and community and religious leaders from more than a dozen faith groups on Sunday marched at the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. corporate headquarters with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)-the largest-ever FLOC event in the state. Dressed in bright red T-shirts and carrying signs saying "End Oppression in the Tobacco Fields" and "Hasta la Victoria," the energized crowd rallied behind a fundamental request: For R.J. Reynolds CEO Susan Ivey to meet with the workers to learn about the horrendous conditions suffered not only by tobacco farm workers in North Carolina, but across the southern United States and in Mexico. FLOC leaders were not deterred when Ivey refused to meet with workers and R.J. Reynolds distanced itself in the press from any responsibility to the workers who harvest the poisonous plants that make them rich. Speaking to the crowd, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez said: FLOC is called upon to challenge the deplorable conditions of the tobacco workforce that remains voiceless, powerless, and invisible to mainstream America. FLOC will campaign until R.J. Reynolds commits to joining us in addressing this national shame. As a dominant player in the big tobacco game, R.J. Reynolds has the industry clout to change working conditions in the fields but has not developed the political will to bring about change. Instead, tobacco's big player continues to make billions of dollars every year, while farm workers live in dire poverty, facing sub-minimum wages and extremely dangerous working conditions. In fact, conditions for farm workers who harvest tobacco are far more dangerous than many realize. James Andrews, president of the North Carolina State AFL-CIO, sums up the workers' plight this way: Each year thousands of workers are effected by green tobacco sickness, caused by an overexposure to harmful chemicals found in tobacco leaves. Many of these workers receive little or no medical attention. The vast majority of North Carolina farm workers are not covered under workers' compensation insurance. In the past several years, nine farm workers died working the fields of North Carolina-literally near the doorsteps of the R.J. Reynolds headquarters. Thousands more suffered work-related sicknesses from heat and chemicals from the tobacco. FLOC, based in Toledo, Ohio, with offices in North Carolina and Mexico, includes thousands of immigrant farm workers seeking to gain decent wages and respect in the fields where they harvest crops ranging from tobacco to tomatoes. Last year, FLOC won union recognition and decent benefits for nearly 7,000 migrant farm workers in North Carolina. In May, more than 15,000 migrant farm workers in North Carolina moved a big step closer toward achieving fair treatment in the workplace. A Wake County (N.C.) Superior Court judge issued a settlement March 10 in a class-action suit spearheaded by FLOC against the North Carolina Growers Association (NCGA). The suit-filed before FLOC and the NCGA signed a historic collective bargaining agreement in 2004-sought to force some 1,000 growers to pay for all visa and transportation costs for temporary workers under the H-2A guest worker program. Sunday's march included a tribute to the Day of the Dead-a major holiday on Nov. 1 in Mexico that celebrates and honors the lives of the dead. Workers placed flowers on an altar in remembrance of all the workers who have died in the fields. Farm worker Diego Reyes spoke out at the rally for workers' rights and was touched by the appearance of so many people "standing together in unity to make change." Reyes' voice was amplified by the many labor and religious leaders who joined him at the microphone: Bobbie Sapp for Machinists (IAM), Edith Rasell, minister for Workplace Justice for the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Michael Livingston of the National Council of Churches, the Rev. Joe Keeseker from Agricultural Missions Inc., Virginia Nesmith from the National Farm Worker Ministry and Wil Duncan, who read a letter of support from AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Committed union members from the following unions proudly showed their support on Sunday: Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM), IAM, Letter Carriers (NALC), Mine Workers (UMWA), Postal Workers (APWU), Seafarers (SIU), UAW, Teamsters, the Tri-Ad Central Labor Body Union, Triangle Labor Council and United Steelworkers (USW). Enditem