Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO

By Raul Jimenez, FLOC Organizer

June 20, 2016

A few weeks ago, I was part of a group of faith leaders, labor leaders, and community allies who delivered the names of 10,000 petitioners to Senator Brent Jackson, calling on him to reinstate seven farmworkers who were blacklisted from working on his farm in Autryville, NC, after they spoke out about wage theft and unjust firing.

A News and Observer article reported that Sen. Jackson’s attorney denies any wrongdoing and says that two of the seven workers are already working on other farms in North Carolina, proving that they had not been blacklisted. The truth is that only one worker has been able to find other work, and that certainly does not mean there was no retaliation. If a worker was fired from an office job for speaking out, would we ever say that there was no retaliation because they were able to find a job in another office?

Read more

By Sintia Castillo, farmworker and member organizer, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)

I am the daughter of single farmworker mother. I began working in the fields when I was 8, selling food with my mom on the weekends and summers. When I turned 13, I started to work with my friends from middle school, picking crops like berries, tobacco, bell peppers, and tomatoes.

In the fields, no one cared that I was young or undocumented because it meant that they could pay me less. They paid me based on how much I picked- $2.50 for a bucket of blueberries sometimes earning me only $15 dollars for 10 hours of work. So I moved to the packing sheds to make the $7.25 minimum wage but conditions there turned out to be even worse, requiring 10 hours of work without breaks. Worse still, it was here that I realized the grower was stealing my wages. When I reported the wage theft to my boss, he retaliated and eventually fired me. I turned to the NC Department of Labor for help, but the first thing they asked for was something I didn’t have to give – a Social Security number.

Read more

It’s 3:30 in the afternoon;   24 mostly 20-something-aged kids are role-playing in Spanish – an animated exchange between their comrades role-playing  “farm workers at the labor camp” and the 4 young FLOC organizers who comprise a team both for this role-play, and for the real-life interactions they’ll have in 4 hours out in real farmworker labor camps.  Six teams of four practice for a total of 5 hours today.  The “farmworkers” throw obstacles in the path of the union-recruiting organizer team trying to discuss with the “farmworkers”  why solidarity through FLOC is the best option for improving their own welfare in their own camp, and that of farmworkers across NC.

All 24 know many of these obstacles well, for they’ve faced them every night – in real life —  for the last week …. and will for the next 7 weeks.   I listen in as they’re reminded, in debriefing sessions, of best responses.   For example:

“We already get paid here much better than in Mexico – why should we complain?”    Response: “But what control do you have?  If your paycheck is shorted, what can you do?   If you’re charged to be able to cook at the camp or for transportation to Wal-Mart, what can you do?   If the boss tells you to go into a field right after pesticide application, what can you do? Life may be OK now, but what about tomorrow? When you have no control, things can go bad very fast. With a union, we get some control for ourselves, but also for our brothers and sisters across North Carolina.”

Read more

Meet Federico.

Federico is one of the approximately 100,000 farmworkers working in North Carolina this harvest season. Every year, individuals like Federico put everything on the line and migrate from Mexico and Central America to North Carolina to work the tobacco harvest season. Expanding from early July to late September, the tobacco harvest season not only brings a lot of migrant workers to the state, but also lots of revenue. North Carolina-grown tobacco accounts for over half of the total U.S. production, making tobacco the most profitable cash-crop in the state of North Carolina. Companies like Reynolds American, Altria Group, and Lorillard, collectively known as “The Big Three,” hold nearly 90% of the tobacco market share in the US, profiting from the hard labor performed by workers like Federico.

While tobacco brings in approximately $770 million dollars to North Carolina according to the USDA, workers like Federico do not see much of that money. After being recruited and gathered at the US consulates in Monterrey and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, migrant farmworkers are transported 1,600 miles to their work camps by way of overcrowded buses. With little stops and much less spending money on hand, workers must endure the travel and the uncertainty of not knowing their final destination. The reward: A promise of housing and a weekly paycheck for three months. Federico has made the arduous journey five times now, each time getting it a little harder because of his age.

“I do it because back in Mexico things are not well…There’s no jobs, crime is up…and I have a family to feed, children to send to school…I do it for them,” explained Federico. Read more