Farm Labor Organizing Committee Totally Explained

Everything about The Farm Labor Organizing Committee totally explained

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO, is a labor union representing migrant farm workers in the Midwestern United States and North Carolina.

History

FLOC was founded in Toledo, Ohio, in 1967 by Baldemar Velasquez. A migrant worker who had worked in the fields since he was six years old, Velasquez led his first strike at the age of 12. By the time he was 20 years old and a college student, Velasquez had already faced numerous beatings and arrests. But in 1967, with the help of his father, Velasquez organized FLOC among migrant field workers picking tomatoes in Ohio.
FLOC's initial organizing strategy was to focus on workers, as most unions did. FLOC organizers followed migrant workers year-round, moving south to Texas and Florida every winter to build an organizing base. By 1977, however, FLOC had only 700 members. The company's public image began to suffer. FLOC then targeted three members of Campbell's board of directors for economic pressure. FLOC also picketed Philadelphia National Bank, one of Campbell's major creditors. Shortly thereafter, depositors threatened to pull $500,000 out of the bank. In the fall of 1985, Campbell's officials agreed to negotiate with FLOC. In February 1986, FLOC, the growers and Campbell's announced a collective bargaining agreement which recognized FLOC as the workers' representative and provided for wage increases, grievance resolution, health insurance, and committees to study pesticide safety, housing, health care, and day care issues. Campbell's agreed to purchase a fixed portion of growers' crops, a guarantee that allowed growers to increase wages without fear that Campbell's would take its business elsewhere. Shortly thereafter, FLOC reached deals with Vlasic, Heinz, Green Bay Foods (now part of Dean Foods), Aunt Jane's (now part of Dean Foods) and Dean Foods. Within a year, FLOC had also signed pacts with 23 of the largest cucumber growers in Ohio and Michigan as well.

Continuing pressure

FLOC continued to address issues related to its collective bargaining agreement in the late 1980s. Midwestern tomato farmers began complaining that the Campbell's Soup pact wasn't adequate. Campbell's purchased only a portion of their product, but the higher costs of wages and benefits affected their entire crop. Thus, Midwestern growers argued that they could no longer compete with cheap Mexican-grown products. Velasquez contacted Mexican farm worker unions, then in the midst of their own collective bargaining negotiations. Velasquez pressured the Mexican unions to demand significantly higher wages. The strategy was successful: The higher Mexican wages and benefits closed the price differential, and Midwestern growers no longer threatened to break their pact with FLOC.
   FLOC also began to expand its organizing efforts. The union sought to protect its gains in the cucumber fields by organizing migrant workers in the nation's second-largest cucumber-growing region—North Carolina.
   The union's five-year boycott of Mount Olive Pickle was ultimately successful. A highlight of the organizing drive was a four-day, 70-mile march from Mount Olive, North Carolina, to Raleigh. On September 16, 2004, FLOC signed a collective bargaining agreement with Mount Olive and the growers. More than 6,000 of the state's 10,000 guest workers joined FLOC, boosting the union's membership to more than 23,000. The Association covered a number of cash crops, such as Christmas trees and tobacco, in addition to cucumbers.
   The Mount Olive agreement marked the first time an American labor union represented guest workers. FLOC quickly established a program to bring guest workers into the United States under the H-2A temporary guest worker visa program. In 2005, the union won its lawsuit. Employers were forced to pay $1.4 million lawsuit to North Carolina workers who had deductions illegally taken from their pay.
   FLOC announced a second major organizing drive throughout the Deep South at its triennial convention in September 2006.

Cruz assassination in Mexico

On April 10, 2007, FLOC organizer Santiago Rafael Cruz was found bound and beaten to death in the group's office in Monterrey, Mexico. FLOC had opened an office next to the U.S. consulate in the city in 2005 to help guest workers process their visas and to organize these incoming guest workers into the union. However, when Mexican police announced that a suspect had been arrested in Cruz's death, they stated "he died for failing to deliver on a shady $4,500 promise to provide visas for the friends of his alleged killer". The $4,500 was to arrange for documents for "other people so they could go to the United States to work...".

Structure

FLOC is governed by its membership. The membership elects delegates, who meet every three years. FLOC held its first membership meeting—called a "constitutional convention"—in 1979. Members set dues, approve policy statements and broad programmatic guidance, and elect officers. Currently, FLOC members pay 2.5% of their base wages as dues. Between conventions, FLOC is governed by a Board of Directors. The board includes the three officers—the international president, international vice president, and international secretary-treasurer—and four at-large board members. All board members are elected for three-year terms. At its 10th Triennial Convention in 2006, delegates elected the following individuals as board members:

Baldemar Velásquez, president
Leticia Zavala, vice president
Beatriz Maya, secretary-treasurer
Cástulo Benavidez, member at large
Maria García, member at large
Arturo Gutierrez, member at large
Angelita Morrisroe, member at large

Between executive board meetings, FLOC's day to day operations are governed by the three officers, led by the president.
FLOC has a number of programs which it has implemented to improve the lives of its members. Since 1971, FLOC has offered educational programs, established food and fuel cooperatives, and run legal clinics for both members and non-members. After it achieved its contract with Campbell's Soup, FLOC sought a charter from the AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO chartered initially chartered FLOC as a directly affiliated local union. However, in February 2006, FLOC changed its affiliation with the AFL-CIO and became a fully chartered international union. While FLOC has a good working relationship with the United Farm Workers (UFW), neither union has sought merger with the other. In 1993, FLOC president Velasquez expressed doubt that his members would approve a merger.Further Information

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