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FARM LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
AFL-CIO

Hasta La Victoria!
Victory will come!
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO is both a social movement and a labor union. Our immediate constituency is migrant workers in the agricultural industry, but we are also involved with immigrant workers, Latinos, our local communities, and national and international coalitions concerned with justice. The FLOC vision emphasizes human rights as the standard and self-determination as the process for achieving these rights. We struggle for full justice for those who have been marginalized and exploited for the benefit of others, and we work to change the structures of society to enable these people a direct voice in their own conditions. (See About FLOC)
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FLOC SEEKS JUSTICE For Reynolds Tobacco Field Workers
Tobacco workers suffer hazardous and demeaning conditions to make big corporations rich. FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez has called on Reynolds Tobacco CEO Susan Ivey to restructure its supply system to give field workers a direct voice in their own conditions. See Justice for Tobacco Field Workers

ACTION ! WRITE REYNOLDS BOARD DIRECTOR HOLLY KOEPPEL
FLOC has been asking Reynolds Tobacco for a meeting for over a year, to discuss the problems of farmworkers who produce their leaf product, but Reynolds has refused. FLOC asks its supporters to send a letter to Reynolds Board Director Holly Koeppel to ask her to help arrange a meeting with FLOC.
To support FLOC, Send a letter to Reynolds Director Koeppel

FLOC RESPONDS to Reynolds' False and Misleading Statements
Reynolds American has issued a statement which portrays FLOC as attacking the corporations' record of "social responsibility". To see FLOC's response which challenges Reynolds' truthfulness and attitudes, see FLOC Responds to Reynolds.















REYNOLDS SUPPRESSES SHAREHOLDERS, REFUSES TO HEAR FARM WORKERS
  In a display of arrogant authoritarianism, the leadership of Reynolds America made the greedy Wall Street executives look like grade schoolers. From the onset of the shareholder's meeting, strict time limitations of two minutes (with a time clock) where put on presenters of resolutions and seconders. Comments where strictly limited to two or three people.
  One FLOC supporter, Ray Rogers, raised a point of order about shareholders not being allowed to ask questions to board members running for re-election, and was summarily ruled out of order. Off duty police hired by Reynolds were then ordered by corporate leaders to remove him from the building, and the police proceeded to physically wrestle him to the floor and forcibly carried him out! Rogers was charged with "trespass"!? Ray was there on a legal proxy, and in fact signed in and was allowed to be seated. The fact that they can make such a charge reflects a haughty corporate ownership of the local police department. AFL-CIO organizer Michael Szpak also raised the issue of unquestioned elections, and was immediately escorted out of the room.
  Farm worker supporters made their points about worker exploitation on non-union farms, and rebutted the incorrect and misleading information that Reynolds is using to attack FLOC on their website. The atmosphere was charged with forces drawing a battle line.
  Nonetheless, Reynolds proceeded to shamelessly vote themselves up to 60 million dollars in additional bonuses to their top well-paid executives, with little thought or concern of the growers and farm workers at the bottom of their supply chain without whom they would not be able to make a penny.
  "This was a day for Reynolds to hear the voices of justice for the workers on whom its wealth is based," said Sarah Zoen. "Their attempts to silence the truth only made it more obvious. Reynolds has an obligation to sit down with FLOC to ensure the rights of tobacco pickers in their supply chain. This was history to remember."
  The day proceeded with bill boarding and leafleting in downtown Winston-Salem by more than a 100 supporters during the lunch hour period, where pedestrians where overwhelming supportive!
  The day ended with a noisy march through downtown. Office building windows were crowded with curious office workers (including at Reynolds headquarters) observing the placards, signs, flags, and the giant puppet of a farm worker in ball-in-chains. One ball represented Reynolds and the other BAT (British American Tobacco.)
  At the march-ending rally at Lloyd's Presbyterian Church, supporters, while enjoying food and refreshments, called to making next year a bigger and better event in getting Reynolds's owners to the bargaining table!
  For more, see FLOC at the 2009 Reynolds shareholders meeting
LABOR JUSTICE For Farmworkers
FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez asks supporters to support a call for national labor legislation for farmworkers, "We want a law that speaks to our unique situation." See LABOR JUSTICE For Farmworkers
JUSTICE FOR SANTIAGO!
The day after Easter, on April 9 2007, FLOC lost Santiago Rafael, an organizer who was viciously tortured and murdered in the union's offices in Mexico. See Justice for Santiago Rafael (PDF document in both English and Spanish).
Santiago Rafael Cruz, PRESENTE!
FLOC FIGHTS FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTS
FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez calls on President Obama and all Americans to (1) bring together unions, advocates, growers and corporations with relevant agriculture interests for the purpose of designing worker supply programs where the corporations are accountable for the labor which supplies their products, and (2) extend full labor rights for domestic, undocumented and "guest workers", including the rights of association and right to organize unions. For more on FLOC and immigration, see Immigrant Rights
LATINOS AND CIVIL RIGHTS: Changing the Face of America
See the keynote address by FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez at the 2009 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Event hosted by the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Community Museum, where he shares his vision of migrant worker justice and Immigrant Rights Movement as a continuation of the Civil Rights Movement in pursuing self-determination. Go to http://www.anacostia.si.edu/Webcast.htm
FLOC SUPPORTERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Detroit FLOC supporters discuss how their group can raise funds to help support the FLOC campaign in N.C. To learn more about how our supporters have made a critical difference to the successes of the FLOC movement, go to FLOC Supporters.
SHOW YOUR SOLIDARITY
FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez and the Aguila Negra band have released a new album, Justice Has No Boundaries, which sets the background for the campaign to organize Reynolds farmworkers in North Carolina. One original song in particular, Urbano's Song, tells the story of a worker who came from Guerrero Mexico seeking to support his family, only to be forgotten and left to die in fields of North Carolina. You can show your involvement with the FLOC movement through this album and other items in the FLOC Shop
Thank You! Thank you for your support! It has always been the commitments and efforts of our supporters that have made our victories possible. As we continue the struggle for justice, we know we can count on you as we face new challenges and victories together.

© FLOC 2009