FLOC Convinces Reynolds American Board Member to Resign

After months of pressure from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, Betsy Atkins resigned from the Reynolds American board of directors on June 17, 2010. FLOC members and supporters spent months asking Atkins, who also sits on the board of directors of Chico’s FAS, Inc., to make a choice: serve a company that takes responsibility for its supply chain, or stick with Reynolds. She made the right choice!

Almost three years ago, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez wrote to all Reynolds board members, urging them to encourage CEO Susan Ivey to meet with FLOC to work towards alleviating the inhumane conditions and labor rights abuses in their supply chain. More recently, President Velasquez wrote to Betsy Atkins, highlighting that serving as a board member at Chico’s, which follows a strict “commitment to ethical sourcing,” is contradictory to serving on the Reynolds board, which refuses to address the problems in its supply chain.

After Atkins failed to respond, FLOC supporters participated in months of actions, including fax-in days and store visits across the country, communicating the seriousness of these issues and their insistence that the company urge Atkins to disassociate herself from the labor abuses in the Reynolds supply chain.

As in past campaigns, solidarity, direct action, and persistence has paid off and succeeded in shaking up the structure of one of the most powerful corporations in the South. FLOC has now turned its attention to financial giant and Reynolds lender JP Morgan Chase! Learn more.