Report Highlights Deplorable Tobacco Worker Conditions

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 11/08/2011

Companies such as RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris International, Philip Morris USA, and British American Tobacco have expressed a willingness to take part in multilateral talks to address issues associated with migrant tobacco workers in the US, according to a report by Lilia Luciano for NBC News Correspondent Field Notes. The plight of some workers was raised by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and Oxfam America when it focused a recent study on the living and working conditions of tobacco field workers in North Carolina. Among their findings was the fact that many workers live in rodent and insect-infested homes. Tobacco workers were exposed to pesticides and tobacco-related illnesses, and one in four was said to earn below the state's $7.25 minimum wage. The president of FLOC, Baldemar Velazquez, described the situation as a "cycle of exploitation that is triggered by the inequities in the supply chain designed by the tobacco companies". "Farmers use undocumented workers because they're cheap and they work hard and they're afraid." Most are afraid of getting deported - 90 per cent of the workers interviewed for the study are undocumented. "We seek a better deal for the workers and the farmers by getting the tobacco companies to sit at a table, and say look, this is what it's going to cost to clean up these nasty labor conditions, these nasty labor camps and make it possible to bring legal workers." Enditem