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Omaha Steve

(99,073 posts)
Thu Nov 29, 2012, 08:08 PM Nov 2012

2012 Justice Update A season of Victories


http://www.supportfloc.org/Pages/2012justiceupdate.aspx

This season has been a busy one for FLOC, full of exciting campaign developments and victories for farmworkers organizing to improve working and living conditions. Check out some of our highlights from 2012, and stay tuned for a full version of our 2012 Justice Update!

Highlights Below:


Reynolds American Finally Agrees to Meet Directly with FLOC
International Organizing from Mexico to North Carolina
Getting Latinos out to Vote in Ohio
Solidarity with Farmworkers from All over the World




Reynolds American Finally Agrees to Meet Directly with FLOC

This May, FLOC members saw the biggest breakthrough to date in the struggle for collective bargaining rights in the Reynolds supply chain! After almost five years of denial, the company finally agreed to one-on-one talks with farmworker representatives. At the company’s annual shareholders meeting, farmworkers and allies mobilized and kept the pressure up on Reynolds American. We insisted that the national campaign would not cease until the company worked with FLOC to guarantee labor rights in their supply chain. Since the announcement at the annual gathering, a series of meetings have taken place with Reynolds executives. These meetings represent a vindication of the FLOC campaign and proof that when the people organize and raise their voices, even the most powerful companies must listen. Nonetheless, farmworkers and their supporters have vowed to continue moving the campaign forward until the company takes solid steps to clean up its supply chain. The struggle is heating up!

This breakthrough comes after years of campaigning and pressure on Reynolds American, its board members, lenders, and distributors. This year FLOC focused Kangaroo, the largest convenience store chain in the South and client to a company that purchases over a third of all Reynolds sales. Supporters and workers have kept busy delivering thousands of petitions and organizing pickets at local stores and the company’s headquarters in Cary, NC. While Kangaroo has refused to take a public stance, Reynolds has made it clear that they are feeling the pressure from Kangaroo to settle the issue by meeting with FLOC. The actions of supporters and workers all over the country are taking us closer and closer to a victory that will bring justice to the fields of North Carolina.

“This effort is not about meeting to just talk, this campaign will continue until Reynolds comes to an agreement with FLOC guaranteeing the right to freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively for all farmworkers in their supply chain.” Said FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez.




International Organizing from Mexico to North Carolina

Several good stories at link



And... The FLOC Movement

FLOC began in the mid-1960s, when Baldemar Velásquez convinced a small group of migrant farmworkers in northwest Ohio to come together for their common good. Initial successes generated strong reactions in the agricultural industry, which has been structured to benefit those at the top, while exploiting those who labor at the bottom. It took several years for FLOC to build a base among farmworkers in the area. Since then, FLOC has built a membership of tens of thousands of migrant farmworkers by incorporating two key principles:



1. Farmworkers need a voice in the decisions that affect them: allowing workers to form a union and collectively bargain with their employer is the only way to address the huge imbalance of power and provide an effective structure for self-determination.



2. Bring all parties to the table to address industry wide problems: Multi-national corporations have created a supply system that enriches its executives at the expense of those who work in the fields. These corporations have the wealth and power to change the harsh realities that many farmworkers face. FLOC seeks a structure where all those in the system work together to solve problems: corporations, growers, and farmworkers. Historically, this is the only solution that has made a real difference in farmworkers' conditions and lives.



Uploaded by mswimmer8 on Aug 5, 2008

Written and produced by Melissa Mergner, a 15-year-old high school student, Speaking Truth to Power -- The Story of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, is a short documentary about labor rights activist Baldemar Velasquez and the organization he founded in Ohio in the 1970s. The son of migrant farm workers and influenced by mentors Martin Luther King, Jr. and Cesar Chavez, Velasquez has devoted his life to changing wages and working conditions for farm workers. His organization FLOC represented farm workers in the labor actions against large corporations such as Campbell's, Heinz, and Mt. Olive Pickles. The film intersperses interviews with Velasquez with archival footage as well as photos of farm workers and working conditions in Ohio and North Carolina. Soundtrack by Richard Drueding.



The FLOC movement continues to grow by building a strong popular base of supporters interested in justice. Corporations have tremendous economic and political power, but millions of people who mobilize in support of justice can collectively tip the balance of power to benefit farmworkers.



Through the many successes of FLOC, conditions of our members have changed dramatically over the years. Not only have wages increased, but housing and other conditions have been improved. The greatest improvement, though, is that workers have a direct voice in their conditions through collective bargaining agreements that include an effective process for resolving grievances and problems.


More at link.



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