Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO
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Do you eat apples, oranges, grapes, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, or products made from "table" fruits and vegetables? If you do, then you are directly linked with farmworkers whose labor in the fields and processing plants has helped provide you with these foods. These farmworkers suffer deprived conditions while helping to provide other Americans with this essential commodity, for which they may receive less than 1% of the price you pay for the foods you eat.
Farmworkers' labor helps feed others in America, yet they themselves are one of the most socioeconomically deprived groups in the country. The disadvantaged living and working conditions of farmworkers have been well-documented for over a century. These conditions include physical labor that is often strenuous and deforming, with earnings that average far below official poverty levels. Child labor is common and begins a life-long pattern of deprivation, including an average sixth-grade education. Housing and sanitation are generally substandard, including crowded cabins in labor camps and the lack of fresh water and toilet facilities in the fields. Health conditions are among the poorest in the nation, with an average life expectancy of only 49 years and with rates of infectious and chronic diseases, malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality well above national averages. In addition, farmworkers are often subjected to hazardous working conditions, such as being sprayed with dangerous pesticides. Despite such conditions, health care and other basic services are frequently unavailable or inaccessible, and farmworkers generally do not receive fringe benefits such as workers' compensation and medical insurance, which are taken for granted by other American workers. They also experience overt and covert discrimination of many sorts.
Farmworkers suffer many deprived labor conditions while helping provide other Americans with food. These include long hours of stoop labor in hot fields, substandard wages, lack of fresh water and sanitary facilities in the fields. (Photo by Jeff Whitestone, 2000)
One of the greatest disadvantages experienced by farmworkers is being denied a voice in decisions that affect their own well-being. This is basically a consequence of the agricultural and political system in which they work. Despite well-documented deprivations, farmworkers are either specifically excluded from some key labor laws, such as the National Labor Relations Act, or have legal standards reduced for them, as with many child labor laws.
The structure of the agricultural system has long disadvantaged the farmworkers whose labor produces the foods we eat. Decisions are made for those at the bottom of the system by those at the top, for their own benefit. Those at the bottom have had no voice in their own working and living situation, and as a consequence they have experienced the most deprived conditions of any occupation in the nation.
The table crops industry in the Midwest is a good example of an abusive system. This system is dominated by large multinational corporations, whose policies and operations are designed around their annual production and profit goals. These corporations stipulate unilateral contracts with growers before the Spring planting season, specifying such conditions as price structures, strains of crops to be planted, and pesticide use. The growers receive comparatively high returns from these crops, though they are subject to weather and other risks. Growers in turn arrange with labor contractors to recruit field workers, for which crewleaders receive returns usually based on the earnings of their workers. At the bottom of the system are the farmworkers, who perform the actual labor in producing the crop. These farmworkers are subject to a host of decisions made at higher levels which affect their living and working conditions. For example, since they are usually paid by a "piece" rate (such as a set price for a basket of tomatoes) rather than hourly wages, they are not subject to minimum wage laws. With "sharecropper" arrangements, farmworkers are treated as independent contractors rather than laborers, and thus are denied even minimal benefits like workers' compensation and are exempt from such labor standards as child labor laws. The results of this system for farmworkers include poverty wages, underemployment, poor housing and sanitation, and exposure to hazardous pesticides. Farmworkers have had little opportunity for input into these decisions, and, at best, can only react to them once they learn of impending or actual events.
Farmworkers are usually provided with substandard housing, and even converted chicken coops infested with lice, as in this migrant labor camp.
In general, farmworkers experience conditions far below what is considered normal standards by most other American workers. Other "migrant" workers, such as those in the petroleum industry, are not subjected to such conditions. Farmworkers are an essential link in the production of food for other Americans, a product as vital to the national well-being as petroleum. They also make significant contributions to the local and regional economies where they work, both in agricultural production and in spending much of their income in the same area where it was earned. Farmworkers are worthy of receiving the same protections and of enjoying the same benefits as other American workers, not only as human beings but as valuable contributors to the American economic system.
Some people say that if conditions are so bad why don't farmworkers find other kinds of jobs, and indeed this is the premise of some government service programs for farmworkers. But this presumes that a variety of desirable jobs are available in the national economy, when even a "normal" unemployment rate may be 6% of the work force. This perspective also ignores the fact that farm labor is essential in agricultural production of many foods, so when one person does leave farm work another steps in to take his place. Thus deprived conditions persist for decade after decade, regardless of who performs the actual labor. Also, many farmworkers really prefer their occupation. Not only have they developed the necessary job and life skills for this kind of work, but many enjoy working and other aspects of farm work. The main challenge, then, is how to make farm work an occupation with acceptable conditions for those people whose labor produces food for other Americans, rather than to cycle people through an occupation that inherently involves deprived conditions.
Large agribusinesses could on their own initiative provide farmworkers with greater rewards for their essential labor, but historically this has rarely happened
Other possible "solutions" have also not proven effective in resolving the basic causes of farmworkers' deprived conditions. For example, one potential solution is for those with the greatest resources in the agricultural system, agribusinesses, to pass on voluntarily some of the benefits they receive to the basic production workers who provide them with their products. Historically, this has rarely occurred, and so has little probability of being an effective solution, particularly since benefits given unilaterally can also be withdrawn unilaterally.
The county court house in Frankfort, Indiana, where a grower was cited for running an unregistered migrant labor camp. The farmworkers involved were housed in converted chicken coops, and children were exposed to dangerous equipment and pesticides. The grower received only a reprimand and was instructed to improve the camp to minimum requirements by the next harvest season. Farmworkers are not covered by many labor laws. Where they are included, standards are often far below that of other American workers, and even these are rarely enforced.
Another possible solution is extending to farmworkers the same legal rights enjoyed by other American workers. As already indicated, farmworkers experience general lack of legal protections, reduced standards, and unenforced rights. Legislation, then, has sometimes provided minimal working and living standards for farmworkers, but has generally proven to be an inadequate and ineffective solution.
A public clinic for farmworkers in Florida. Public assistance programs are important resources for farmworkers. But such programs address the symptoms rather than the underlying cause of farmworkers' poor living and working conditions
Another possible solution is provision of public assistance programs for farmworkers. Currently, there are a number of health, nutrition, education, and other government programs available to farmworkers. These programs reflect the humanitarian concerns and social responsibility of many Americans. But such programs are not always accessible. Also, a number of farmworkers do not utilize programs even when they are available, saying that they work hard to support their families and that their sense of dignity is more important that the services received. Most important, assistance programs tend to address only survival needs, and so they do not resolve the cause of the basic deprived conditions experienced by farmworkers for generation after generation. Farmworker leaders argue that such public assistance programs are in effect public subsidies for agribusinesses, since they do not have to provide their workers with the same wages and benefits as other industries and since taxpayers in essence bear the costs of these subsidies rather than the employers.
In 1983, FLOC farmworkers and supporters marched from Toledo, Ohio, to Camden, NJ, to present their cause directly to Campbell Soup, a cause that was realized three years later with union elections and contracts. When all the alternatives for improving farmworkers' conditions are considered, it is the farm labor movement that has made the most significant and lasting impacts.
When the various alternatives for improving farmworkers' living and working conditions are considered, only the farm labor movement has historically proven to be truly effective in establishing lasting changes in the agricultural system that have benefitted farmworkers. This includes the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC) in the Midwest and South.
Baldemar Velásquez was raised in a migrant farmworker family, and experienced the injustices and indignities of being treated as work animals instead of human beings. Responding to the maltreatment around him all his life, a young Baldemar began questioning the system that forced upon poverty and abuse upon his family. He began talking with others, convincing them that they needed to stand together and fight for their basic rights and dignity. Baldemar's efforts evolved into farm labor organizing.
Baldemar Velásquez, the founder of FLOC, talks with farmworkers about the need to stand up for their basic rights and dignity.
In 1967, he and others founded the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and led a strike that won contracts with 33 tomato growers in northwest Ohio. The next year, growers were supported by the food-processing corporations in bringing in strike breakers to block FLOC organizing. FLOC leaders realized that the food-processing corporations rather than the growers controlled the structure of the agricultural system, including benefits available to farmworkers. FLOC then focused on community organizing in preparation for what they understood would be a long-term struggle.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) was founded in 1967 by Baldemar Velásquez, and in 1979 was formally organized as a labor union of farmworkers. After unsuccessful attempts to establish a dialogue with Campbell Soup Company, 2,300 FLOC workers voted in 1978 to strike all Campbell's tomato field operations in northwestern Ohio, demanding collective bargaining to set wages and working conditions.
FLOC farmworkers vote in 1978 to strike Campbell's tomato operations in Ohio. One of the most important issues in the FLOC movement has been the right for farmworkers to participate actively in those decisions that affect their conditions.
Campbell claimed it did not employ farmworkers and only worked with its growers. But the company demonstrated how shallow this claim was when it brought in advisors to help the growers break the strike and mandated that its growers use mechanical harvesters.
In the summer of 1979, FLOC held its first Constitutional Convention in Holgate, Ohio. The workers called for popular support in their struggle for a direct voice in their own conditions in the form of public boycott of all Campbell Soup products. The rationale behind this strategy was that a boycott is one of the few nonviolent means available to offset the relative powerlessness of farmworkers. FLOC reasoned that the widespread socioeconomic power of the public at large can effectively counterbalance the economic and political power of large agribusinesses.
The convention was also important because it demonstrated the substantial internal support for FLOC among farmworkers themselves. It also served as an occasion to mobilize external support. FLOC's legitimacy was recognized by the broad support of religious, labor, political, and civic organizations around the country who attended the convention as guest speakers and observers.
FLOC organized its efforts on two fronts. FLOC continued to organize farmworkers involved in Campbell's operations, both in the Texas and Florida base areas and in the Midwest, including those brought in unknowingly to break the strike. A second effort focused on mobilizing popular support for its cause. Leaders in church, labor, and other organizations sympathetic to the farmworker rights were asked to endorse the boycott and inform its members of the issues. Local volunteer support committees were organized, who advocated the boycott with church, labor, educational, and other groups in their own areas. During the migrant season, many of these supporters raised funds and collected food and clothing for the strikers. FLOC held its second Constitutional Convention in 1982.
In 1983, a new issue was introduced into the FLOC struggle, when farmworkers in Michigan lost a case against "sharecropping in the cucumber (pickle) industry. In this arrangement, the grower received half of the proceeds of the harvest, and the other half was divided among the field workers as "independent contractors" according to the quantity they picked. The industry was thus not held responsible for child labor in the harvesting of the crops, since technically the children were not employees. Another problem was that the farmworkers had to pay a higher tax rate and file their own federal and state tax withholdings and Social Security payments. For example, one worker who thought he was being paid for his work discovered he owed over $7,000 in back taxes, plus penalties. This was more than the family's annual income, and they faced a lifetime of debt. FLOC subsequently began organizing pickle workers in Ohio and Michigan who were involved with the Campbell's Vlasic products, adding some 1,900 new members.
In 1983, FLOC organized a 550-mile farmworkers' march from Toledo, Ohio, to Campbell Soup's home offices in Camden, New Jersey. Along the route, the marchers were met with community support in the form of food, places to sleep, shoes, and sympathy and encouragement. In Philadelphia, a large rally was held, then a mass was held in the Catholic cathedral in Camden. The next day completed their march with a demonstration at Campbell Soup headquarters and presented a workers' petition asking the company to respond to their needs by negotiating with their organization.
One of the most moving moments in FLOC's struggle was during the 1983 march on Campbell Soup. A mass for the farmworkers was held at the Camden Catholic cathedral, where about fifteen priests washed the feet of the marchers. The moral force of this event was a great encouragement to the farmworkers and to their supporters
In February 1986, after two years of on-and-off talks and a "corporate campaign", FLOC, Campbell Soup, and Campbell's tomato and pickle growers in Ohio and Michigan signed a historic three-way labor contract. Elections were on farms supplying Campbell, and over 3,100 farmworkers signed on with FLOC. These workers were guaranteed union recognition, with an equal voice in negotiating their wages and working conditions. All workers were now clearly classified as paid employees with guaranteed minimum earnings and a system of incentive payments for higher yields, full prior disclosure of conditions of employment was provided, a full itemized written report of all earnings and expenses, full coverage for workers compensation, unemployment compensation, and Social Security benefits. Of historic importance were two unique features in these agreements:
With the signing of the three-way agreements in 1986, the whole structure of the agricultural system was restructured. No longer could those with predominant economic and political power dictate terms. Each party negotiated as equals, deciding what it would give up or not, and collectively reaching the best balance for all.
In its fourth Constitutional Convention held in 1988, the workers and FLOC supporters celebrated the significant changes in the structure of the agricultural system. FLOC leaders expressed a great sense of achievement at these developments. "Elimination of the sharecropping system was won by farmworkers," Baldemar Velásquez said, "not by lawyers or politicians."
Farmworker leaders from migrant camps receive training about the rights and benefits under the labor contract between FLOC, growers, and food-processing corporations. The contracts provide a means for resolving conflicts through a grievance procedure overseen by a private labor relations commission which extends across state boundaries.
FLOC had originally stated that their long-term goals included structural changes in the agribusiness system that affected farmworkers' lives. The contracts with Campbell Soup was only the start, and similar agreements with Vlasic, Heinz, Green Bay, and Aunt Jane corporation and their pickle growers in Ohio and Michigan were subsequently signed. In all, over 7,000 workers came to be represented by FLOC. In 1991, FLOC held its fifth Constitutional Convention, at which the heads of the growers associations in the three-party contracts addressed the workers.
In 1992, FLOC became affiliated with the AFL-CIO. It also expanded its relations with U.S. and international farm labor, migrant, human rights, and other justice groups. In subsequent years, all contracts were renewed, and farmworkers' benefits were steady increased.
After consolidating its gains in the Midwest, FLOC began organizing in North Carolina, the second major pickle-producing region in the U.S. The South has had a strong anti-union "right-to-work" traditions, which reflect attitudes towards workers since the days of slavery and tenant farmers. Also, North Carolina had developed a strong reliance on imported H2A "guest workers". An investigation by Human Rights Watch documented the suppression of human and worker rights among migrant and H2A workers in North Carolina. These workers experience corruption in the recruitment process in Mexico, and after they arrive in the U.S. have no say in whom they work for or the type of work they do. While on the job, they suffer intimidated and retaliation if they complain of poor treatment or conditions, including being blacklisted from future employment. The death of one worker after being exposed to pesticides, having his symptoms ignored, and being refused medical treatment illustrates the low regard for those workers whose labor produces the products of the agricultural corporations.
Farmworker conditions in the South have been even worse than in the Midwest, such as this labor camp in North Carolina.
In 1997, FLOC approached Mt. Olive Pickle Company, the country's second largest pickle producer, and invited the company to enter into multi-party contracts like those in the Midwest. The response was the same initial argument as Campbell Soup, with Mt. Olive saying that it was not responsible for farmworkers and only worked with its growers. The company refused to negotiate.
FLOC began an organizing drive on farms producing Mt. Olive pickles, and many workers signed union authorization cards for FLOC to represent them. On one occasion, FLOC organizers were arrested for trespass when they entered a labor camp to talk with workers. Charges were dismissed, however, in recognition of the rights of workers to have visitors in their place of residence, as in other regions in the country.
The following year, FLOC called for a national boycott against Mt. Olive Pickles. FLOC had already begun developing support networks among faith, labor, student, and civic groups to press for resolution to the farmworkers' direct voice in their own conditions. In addition to efforts in North Carolina, FLOC expanded the boycott efforts throughout the South, Midwest, and other regions. Hundreds of religious, labor, student, and community groups across the country endorsed the boycott, including the Catholic Bishops of Raleigh, Toledo, Cincinnati, and other dioceses, the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church, the National Council of Churches, and the AFL-CIO.
FLOC workers and supporters in North Carolina hold rallies and marches to bring attention to the struggle with Mt. Olive Pickles. (Photo by Laura Drey)
A number of demonstrations and marches increased public pressure on Mt. Olive. Attention was also directed at the grocery chains, resulting in Kroger stores in northwest Ohio and Farmer Jack stores in Ohio and Michigan pulling Mt. Olive products from their shelves.
In 2004, FLOC began talks with Mt. Olive and the North Carolina Growers Association. On September 16, FLOC signed a three-way labor agreement, which covered 8,000 H2A workers on 1,050 farms across North Carolina and a wide range of crops. Thousands of grievances were immediately processed, indicating the many abuses experienced under the old system, and workers won wages and back pay which had been unjustly denied them.
FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez and H2A workers sign a historic agreement with the North Carolina Growers Association which for the first time gives agricultural workers in the South a direct and equal voice in their own conditions.
The North Carolina agreements were historic in several ways. For the first time since the days of slavery in the South and for the first time in the history of U.S. temporary "guest workers", agricultural workers had a direct voice in their own working conditions through their union.
Following this victory, FLOC opened an office in Monterrey, México, to help the new members with the processing of their work visas and to train workers about their new rights under the union contract.
The FLOC movement has achieved a whole new set of rights and benefits for farmworkers. The most significant change is a restructuring of the agricultural system. Farmworkers now participate as equals in determining their own wages and benefits.
In the year following the signing of the agreements in North Carolina, FLOC workers organized and held an members assembly, where they expressed their new rights to a direct voice in those conditions that affect their work and lives. After discussions and debate, they passed ten resolutions that guide FLOC in addressing issues of concern to them
FLOC farmworkers now have a direct voice in their own conditions. In the collective bargaining process, farmworkers are an equal partner in deciding what benefits they will accept for their labor. This does not mean that they have total control, of course. But it does mean that they can decide what they will give up and what they will not give up. They make these decisions, rather than someone else unilaterally deciding for them.
This new system has significantly affect the treatment they experience on the job and in local communities. Many workers say their employers treat them with more respect now. For example, they say that the bosses discuss work tasks rather than bluntly ordering them to do things, and that the bosses respond more positively to issues. Also, through the grievance procedure farmworkers can address problems encountered on the job, which in most cases are resolved at the work site. A number of FLOC workers have stated that they now feel they are not subject to the threats or whims of others, and their new rights and benefits are "like a law."
When the FLOC strike began in 1978, Midwestern farmworkers were experiencing among the most deprived socioeconomic conditions of any group in America. Now, FLOC workers also enjoy considerably improved working conditions. They have won an increase of up to 25% in wages and incentive payments. Housing and sanitary facilities have been improved.
New migrant housing at a FLOC labor camp in Ohio include private rooms for parents, indoor bathroom facilities, a kitchen, and heating. This is a concrete symbol of the new structure in the agricultural system in which farmworkers are experiencing improved living and working conditions, greater income, more occupational stability, and a greater sense of employment security.
There is also a remarkable degree of personal growth in those farmworkers who have become involved in the FLOC movement. They have become more interested in national and international affairs, have developed leadership and organizing skills, and have developed broader social relations with others.
The new developments being experienced by FLOC farmworkers have many important long-term implications. FLOC workers can now expect to lead healthier, more stable lives. They can look forward to a higher and more beneficial standard of living. And they can expect to achieve a more productive existence, with a greater sense of achievement in their individual and family lives.
At a FLOC rally in Philadelphia in 1983, Baldemar Velásquez called farmworker children up front. He told the audience that one child could grow up to be a doctor and discover a cure for cancer, another child could be a teacher and develop a love of learning in school children, and so on. One tragedy of discrimination is that it denies people to fulfill their potentials. Another tragedy is that it also denies those potentials for ALL of us... so we may die of cancer, our children may not develop the love of learning. We all pay the costs of discrimination
On a larger scale, FLOC farmworkers are now more integrated into the American socioeconomic system. They can be more productive taxpayers, instead of having to rely on tax-supported social services, and with higher wages and benefits their purchasing power can help support the American economy and the jobs of others in their communities. Instead of having to work to help support their families, their children can receive more comprehensive education and have brighter futures for contributing to our communities and society. As the FLOC workers become more integrated into the American system, we can all benefit.
Although FLOC has made labor history with three-way contracts among food-processing companies, growers, and contracts, and with union rights for immigrant "guest workers", there is still much work to do. FLOC is continuing its work to bring justice and basic human and working rights for farmworkers, particularly in the South, and is expanding its operations to include recruitment and training of workers in Mexico to be more productive workers in the U.S. FLOC is also continuing its efforts to build national and international alliances for worker justice.
FLOC workers and staff stand outside the FLOC office in Monterrey, México. Supporting workers in their visa processing and training workers before they come to the U.S. helps maximize their rights and productivity.
Another issue in which FLOC has become involved is immigrant rights. This is a result of direction by its members, most of whom are immigrants. FLOC participated in the formation of a National Coalition for Dignity and Permanent Residency for Immigrants, and has been active in organizing immigrant communities to have their own voice in conditions and policies that affect their human, civil, and working rights, and also in building an Immigrant Rights Network to support immigrants in gaining their rights. FLOC is also involved in policy advocacy to win basic rights for immigrants.
Consider the impossible, organizing a poor, marginalized, migrant population that only works in a particular area seasonally, and changing the structure of an industry that was based on benefitting a few at the top. FLOC has achieved the impossible.
What has made the difference in the FLOC achievements of working, civil, and human rights for migrant workers?
Leaders of the FLOC farmworkers in North Carolina, who organized and ran the 2005 assembly where workers expressed their voice in directing the union's efforts in addressing their conditions and futures. The achievements of FLOC are ultimately based on the convictions and abilities of farmworkers themselves. (Photo by Carmela Meehan)
One major force has been the vision and sacrifices of FLOC leaders. Baldemar Velásquez, for example, has seen what is possible and how to achieve these possibilities... when others may have thought "impossible" or given up at the overwhelming challenges.
Another major force has been the convictions of farmworkers themselves that they deserve dignity and justice. History shows that those who wait for others to give them their rights rarely get them. It is those who take a stand for their own rights who see their potentials realized. It does not necessarily come easily, and the sacrifices and innovative strategies of FLOC leaders and workers have been the basis for these convictions becoming a reality. This is a basic value in American society that is now being realized by farmworkers.
Baldemar Velásquez addresses a group of community supporters at the North Carolina 2005 workers assembly. Citizens in local communities who acted on the core values of American society and human decency tipped the scales in changing in the agricultural system so farmworkers could gain direct participation in their own conditions
Another major force has been our supporters... those millions of Americans who have practiced basic values of freedom, democracy, and the moral worth of human beings. Migrant farmworkers have been a marginalized and deprived group, but public support has counterbalanced their disadvantages. Vested interests have had a great deal of economic and political power, but this has been of little use when the larger community takes a stand for migrant justice.
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© FLOC 2007