Farm Labor Organizing Committee FLOC, AFL-CIO

Support Justice for Tobacco Farmworkers!

Big tobacco companies are among the richest parties in American agriculture. They have constructed a supply system that benefits themselves, at the expense of those who produce their leaf products.

FLOC has continuously called on Reynolds American to meet with the farmworkers their company relies on for its raw product and put an end to exploitation in NC tobacco fields. Read More

JP Morgan Chase is one of the lead banks in a consortium of lenders that has invested $498 million dollars in Reynolds American, one of the largest tobacco companies in the US. While Reynolds American and JP Morgan Chase make billions, farmworkers continue to suffer serious human rights abuses in the fields. Read more

Support justice for farmworkers,

order your special edition print by Arturo Bustos!

FLOC recently brought two world famous artists from Mexico City to the Rivera Court in the Detroit Institute of Arts and the National Museum of Meixcan Art in Chicago for two gala fundraisers that promoteded worker rights and justice for America's farmworkers.

FLOC and Oxfam release groundbreaking human rights report

We are pleased to announce the release of our new report, "A state of fear: Human rights abuses in North Carolina’s tobacco industry," which details the human rights impact of the tobacco industry on North Carolina’s farmworkers

>Read the full report here

>Pictures from the launch rally

>Watch video clip from the launch rally

>Press Release

>Read reviews of the report

Recent Events

2011 Winter Justice Update

View PDF

President Velasquez joins the MN Fair Trade Coalition in celebrating 20 years of

fair trade advocacy

See pics

Ohio FLOC members hold "Solidarity Holiday" in support of public workers, shut down fresh market tomato packing for a day

Read more and see pictures

66 international trade unions worldwide join FLOC and call for justice for Santiago, urge Mexico to protect labor rights

Members of USAS and MEChA tour NC fields and pledge to support Campaign

Read their blog

FLOC confronts JPMorgan Chase at Showdown in Ohio

Hundreds march and rally at Reynolds shareholders meeting; Reynolds agrees to meet with FLOC

See pictures and read more

FLOC and Oxfam release findings of human rights report exposing severe violations in NC tobacco fields

Read press release

Download Report Summary (PDF)

Summary in Spanish

More recent events

Maria's boss suddenly fired her and her children and refused to pay them for their work. After FLOC spoke to the grower, Maria was paid nearly $500 in back wages. Read her story
We Are FLOC

Feb. 11, 2012 Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) Raleigh, NC March 25-31, 2012 National Farmworker Awareness Week April 1-6, 2012 Pilgrimage for Peace and Justice Eastern NC
Upcoming Events

Get Involved!

>> Latinos, we need your voice! Join the Greater Toledo Chapter of LCLAA!

>> Volunteers needed! Contact us if you can help

FLOC in the News

>>USAS campaign to ban sale of some cigarettes on campus

>>President Velasquez named one of 100 Most Influential Hispanics by Hispanic Business

>>From The Promised Land: interview with Baldemar Velasquez

>>Report details plight of North Carolina's tobacco workers

>>The difference between legal, illegal farm labor

>>US Congress has unpaid debt to migrant farmworkers/ Congreso tiene deuda pendiente con trabajadores del campo en Estados Unidos

>>Eye-Witness to the Cruel Conditions in Tobacco Farm Labor Camps

>>Fear is Biggest Obstacle, Says Farmworkers’ Union

>>Farmworkers take plea to government

>>Rights of Tobacco Farm Workers Go Up in Smoke in North Carolina

>>Power of Politics Blog by Oxfam

>>En "Estado de Miedo"

>>Justin Flores and Russell Bannan on the Mario Solis-Marich Radio Show

>>NC tobacco workers face below-minimum wages and abusive working and living conditions

View news archives

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), is both a social movement and a labor union. Our immediate constituency is migrant workers in the agricultural industry, but we are also involved with immigrant workers, Latinos, our local communities, and national and international coalitions concerned with justice.

The FLOC vision emphasizes human rights as the standard and self-determination as the process for achieving these rights. We struggle for justice for those who have been marginalized and exploited for the benefit of others and we work to change the structures of society to enable workers to have a direct voice in their own conditions.

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...