Below, Baldemar Velásquez, the founder
of FLOC, talks with farmworkers about the
need to stand up for their basic rights and dignity. 
THE EARLY YEARS OF FLOC
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 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.
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.
ORGANIZING IN THE MIDWEST
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. 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.
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. 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 held 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:
- One was a contractual agreement among the three major parties involved in the production of goods: farmworkers, growers, and food processing corporations. This arrangement ensured that farmers as well as farmworkers had a direct voice in conditions that affect their well being, and also that the company could put forth the conditions that ensured its viability as a corporation of public shareholders.
- Another was the contractual establishment of the "Dunlop Commission," a private labor relations board composed of representatives of each of the three parties concerned, and a grievance procedure for processing and investigating work-related complaints. This commission was headed by John Dunlop, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor, and was invested with the power to review, arbitrate, and, as necessary, resolve complaints brought before it. The Dunlop Commission provided for a way to resolve the complex situation of farmworkers working across various states with different laws and agricultural structures, and ensured that workers always have a voice in how they are treated on the job without intimidation.
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.
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.
ORGANIZING IN THE SOUTH
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" tradition, which reflects attitudes towards workers since the days of slavery and tenant farmers. Also, North Carolina had developed a strong reliance on imported H2A "guest workers". 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 intimidation and retaliation if they complain of poor treatment or conditions, including being blacklisted from future employment.
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.
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 a direct voice for farmworkers 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.
In 2006, FLOC members voted to expand labor rights to Southern tobacco harvesters by launching a campaign against tobacco giant RJ Reynolds. In September of 2007, FLOC President Baldemar Velásquez asked to meet with Susan Ivey, the CEO of Reynolds American Inc., to discuss the conditions of field workers producing its products. Reynolds replied that it saw no reason to meet with FLOC. FLOC has since begun a public campaign to pressure Reynolds American to take responsibility for the human rights violations that occur in the farms that produce their raw product.
Click here for a chronological timeline of FLOC history.
