Farm Labor Organizing Committee FLOC, AFL-CIO

...called upon to challenge the deplorable conditions of the broader workforce that remains voiceless, powerless, and invisible to mainstream America...
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Conditions in NC Tobacco Fields

 

Baldemar Velasquez, President and Founder of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, speaks about FLOC's campaigns for Human rights at the 2009 National AFL-CIO Convention.

 

 

 

Every year, tens of thousands of migrant workers travel to North Carolina to harvest tobacco. While the contract between FLOC and the NC Growers' Association has helped end many of the abuses in the H2A "guest-worker" program, we estimate that around 80% of the workforce is made up of undocumented workers who are still denied the most basic labor rights. Corporations like RJ Reynolds continue to reap huge profits at the expense of this migrant workforce.

 

In recent years, nine field workers have died in North Carolina tobacco fields, most of them due to heat stroke. (Read "A Harvest of Shame" by Baldemar Velasquez.) 

 

 

Most farmworkers continue to face slave-like hardships, such as:

  • racism
  • long hours of stoop labor in the fields
  • harassment in their work
  • abject poverty
  • staggering debt
  • exposure to lethal nicotine and pesticides
  • poor health
  • miserable housing in labor camps
  • denial of basic labor and human rights protections

 

After long, hot days in the fields, tobacco farmworkers return to labor camps that are deplorable, cramped and uncomfortable, and pose many hazards and health risks, including:

 

  • Isolation from the public and visitors.
  • Sleeping on bare bunks or moldy mattresses on the floor.
  • Poor ventilation.
  • Leaky roofs.
  • Hazardous wiring.
  • Poorly maintained plumbing and showers.
  • Poor ventilation.
  • Infestation by flies, mosquitoes, and other bugs.
  • Inadequate facilities for washing clothes contaminated by pesticides and tobacco residue.
  • No cooking facilities and having to buy food at high prices from the camp supervisor.

 

        Working in the tobacco fields is dangerous.  Farmworkers often suffer from serious health conditions as a result of the dangerous field work and living conditions. Adequate shower and laundry facilities are often lacking, making it difficult to wash off pesticide residue.  Each year, thousands of workers suffer from Green Tobacco Sickness (GTS), which is caused by a high level of nicotine absorption through the skin.  Short term effects include dizziness, nausea, and dehydration, which can lead to more serious health problems such as heat stroke.

 

         The most serious problem faced by tobacco field workers is that they have no voice in those conditions that impact their lives. Everyone else makes decisions for them and if they complain about mistreatment or if their productivity declines from tobacco sickness, they can be fired without question.

 

        Join FLOC in the struggle to end these unacceptable conditions by holding all those who benefit from this exploitation accountable. Take action now!