ckaihatsu
1st July 2017, 18:43
[LFN] Fight the NC State and Corporate Attack on Farmworkers and FLOC; Support FLOC's 50th Anniversary!
Presentation
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Farm workers -- particularly farm workers organized by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) -- are under attack like never before. We call on all supporters of labor and immigrant rights to support the call for labor-community solidarity with FLOC issued by Saladin Muhammad of Black Workers For Justice and the Southern Workers Assembly. [See below.]
Also attached are two documents sent to us by Baldemar Velasquez, president of FLOC, urging support for FLOC's 13th National Convention, which will also mark FLOC's 50th anniversary. It will be held September 8-9 in Toledo, Ohio. Brother Baldemar is urging union members and community activists to get your organizations to take out an ad in their convention booklet to support FLOC's convention.
"We are not a rich union," Brother Baldemar explains, "so we have to rely on supporters to raise the resources to transport, house and feed the farm workers who will come as delegates." A Convention Sponsorship form, with the deadline for submission of ads, is attached.
Last but not least, Brother Baldemar and a delegation from FLOC will be participating in the Third Labor Fightback Conference, which will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21-23. Brother Baldemar joins us in urging labor and community activists to be there.
Information on workshops, speakers, registration, housing, costs, and other logistics are included on the Labor Fightback Conference website [click here (http://laborfightback.org/conference2017/)]. Please register today [click here (http://laborfightback.org/conference2017/registration.htm)]!
We thank you, in advance, for your support to FLOC, and we look forward to seeing you in Cleveland for the Labor Fightback Conference.
In solidarity,
The Steering Committee of the
Labor Fightback Network
* * * * * * * * * *
Fight the NC State and Corporate Attack on Farmworkers and FLOC!
The attacks on worker rights in North Carolina, especially those organized to challenge the injustices of employers, has targeted farm workers and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).
This attack on NC farm workers and FLOC is an attack on Latino workers that constitute the majority of the farm workers in NC, throughout the South and across the United States. Many are immigrant workers.
This attack on the ability of the workers to financially support their organizations and to weaken their resources to fight the corporate powers and the state is a broad attack impacting public sector workers.
Agriculture corporations that own land and contract with farm owners are private sector. This bill and attack on farm workers and FLOC has implications for other private sector workers.
As was the case when African Americans and African Descendants from Haiti and the Caribbean were the majority of the farmworkers with no protections under the National Labor Relations Act and general labor laws, Latino workers have inherited most of this same lack of worker rights.
Labor and community solidarity is greatly needed. This must become a national battlefront for all workers, organized, unorganized, unemployed our communities.
Contact FLOC [see attached documents] for more information!
Comradely,
Saladin Muhammad
* * * * * * * * * *
Farmers Elected to State Legislature Seek to Stop Farmworker Union’s Progress; S615 continues decades long effort to deny farmworkers freedom of association
Contact: Justin Flores, [email protected], 704-577-3480
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2017, Raleigh, NC –State Rep. David Lewis of Dunn, NC, a tobacco farmer in Eastern NC was pushing Senate Bill 375, which focuses on stopping farmworkers from organizing for better wages and working conditions. Not having the votes to pass the bill, Rep. Jimmy Dixon, a farmer from Warsaw, NC snuck it in as an amendment to the Farm Bill, S615, which was passed without opportunity for full discussion.
The bill has two parts:
1. It makes it illegal for farmers who have signed union agreements to deduct dues from union members who want to pay dues, seeking to weaken the only farmworker union in the state, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
2. The bill makes it illegal for farmworkers to ask growers to sign an agreement with their union as part of settling wage or other legal violations, making it more difficult for farmworkers to achieve union agreements that include wage increases, job security, benefits, and improved working conditions. This, FLOC believes, is occurring in retaliation for a series of lawsuits their members have brought over the past few years, seeking to end wage theft, intimidation, and retaliation across Eastern NC.
Farmworkers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, face exceptions in the minimum wage, child labor, and workers compensation laws, among others. Farmworkers are covered by the state’s so called Right to Work law, which forces unions to spend money representing non-members, and more recently, were the victims of the “Agricultural Right to Work” law, passed in 2013 in response to FLOC’s tobacco campaign.
“Farmers have many ways to come together and improve their lives, such as trade associations and cooperatives; it is unfair for them to try and stop their own workers from doing the same by passing laws to make it illegal. Politicians that are also growers shouldn’t pass self-serving laws simply because they don’t want their workers to unionize. With the continuation of Jim Crow era laws that aim to stop a now almost entirely Latino workforce from organizing, this is an affront to freedom of association and smacks of racism.” said FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez.
FLOC is a farmworker union that represents over 10,000 farmworkers in NC, SC and OH. Since 2007, the union has been calling on tobacco purchasers, such as Winston-Salem based Reynolds American to spend more money buying US tobacco to support growers and improve conditions for the tobacco farmworkers in their supply chain.
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2 attachments
FLOC Constitutional Convention.pdf
45K
Convention sponsorship forms.pdf
368K
Presentation
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Farm workers -- particularly farm workers organized by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) -- are under attack like never before. We call on all supporters of labor and immigrant rights to support the call for labor-community solidarity with FLOC issued by Saladin Muhammad of Black Workers For Justice and the Southern Workers Assembly. [See below.]
Also attached are two documents sent to us by Baldemar Velasquez, president of FLOC, urging support for FLOC's 13th National Convention, which will also mark FLOC's 50th anniversary. It will be held September 8-9 in Toledo, Ohio. Brother Baldemar is urging union members and community activists to get your organizations to take out an ad in their convention booklet to support FLOC's convention.
"We are not a rich union," Brother Baldemar explains, "so we have to rely on supporters to raise the resources to transport, house and feed the farm workers who will come as delegates." A Convention Sponsorship form, with the deadline for submission of ads, is attached.
Last but not least, Brother Baldemar and a delegation from FLOC will be participating in the Third Labor Fightback Conference, which will be held in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 21-23. Brother Baldemar joins us in urging labor and community activists to be there.
Information on workshops, speakers, registration, housing, costs, and other logistics are included on the Labor Fightback Conference website [click here (http://laborfightback.org/conference2017/)]. Please register today [click here (http://laborfightback.org/conference2017/registration.htm)]!
We thank you, in advance, for your support to FLOC, and we look forward to seeing you in Cleveland for the Labor Fightback Conference.
In solidarity,
The Steering Committee of the
Labor Fightback Network
* * * * * * * * * *
Fight the NC State and Corporate Attack on Farmworkers and FLOC!
The attacks on worker rights in North Carolina, especially those organized to challenge the injustices of employers, has targeted farm workers and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).
This attack on NC farm workers and FLOC is an attack on Latino workers that constitute the majority of the farm workers in NC, throughout the South and across the United States. Many are immigrant workers.
This attack on the ability of the workers to financially support their organizations and to weaken their resources to fight the corporate powers and the state is a broad attack impacting public sector workers.
Agriculture corporations that own land and contract with farm owners are private sector. This bill and attack on farm workers and FLOC has implications for other private sector workers.
As was the case when African Americans and African Descendants from Haiti and the Caribbean were the majority of the farmworkers with no protections under the National Labor Relations Act and general labor laws, Latino workers have inherited most of this same lack of worker rights.
Labor and community solidarity is greatly needed. This must become a national battlefront for all workers, organized, unorganized, unemployed our communities.
Contact FLOC [see attached documents] for more information!
Comradely,
Saladin Muhammad
* * * * * * * * * *
Farmers Elected to State Legislature Seek to Stop Farmworker Union’s Progress; S615 continues decades long effort to deny farmworkers freedom of association
Contact: Justin Flores, [email protected], 704-577-3480
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 28, 2017, Raleigh, NC –State Rep. David Lewis of Dunn, NC, a tobacco farmer in Eastern NC was pushing Senate Bill 375, which focuses on stopping farmworkers from organizing for better wages and working conditions. Not having the votes to pass the bill, Rep. Jimmy Dixon, a farmer from Warsaw, NC snuck it in as an amendment to the Farm Bill, S615, which was passed without opportunity for full discussion.
The bill has two parts:
1. It makes it illegal for farmers who have signed union agreements to deduct dues from union members who want to pay dues, seeking to weaken the only farmworker union in the state, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC)
2. The bill makes it illegal for farmworkers to ask growers to sign an agreement with their union as part of settling wage or other legal violations, making it more difficult for farmworkers to achieve union agreements that include wage increases, job security, benefits, and improved working conditions. This, FLOC believes, is occurring in retaliation for a series of lawsuits their members have brought over the past few years, seeking to end wage theft, intimidation, and retaliation across Eastern NC.
Farmworkers are excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, face exceptions in the minimum wage, child labor, and workers compensation laws, among others. Farmworkers are covered by the state’s so called Right to Work law, which forces unions to spend money representing non-members, and more recently, were the victims of the “Agricultural Right to Work” law, passed in 2013 in response to FLOC’s tobacco campaign.
“Farmers have many ways to come together and improve their lives, such as trade associations and cooperatives; it is unfair for them to try and stop their own workers from doing the same by passing laws to make it illegal. Politicians that are also growers shouldn’t pass self-serving laws simply because they don’t want their workers to unionize. With the continuation of Jim Crow era laws that aim to stop a now almost entirely Latino workforce from organizing, this is an affront to freedom of association and smacks of racism.” said FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez.
FLOC is a farmworker union that represents over 10,000 farmworkers in NC, SC and OH. Since 2007, the union has been calling on tobacco purchasers, such as Winston-Salem based Reynolds American to spend more money buying US tobacco to support growers and improve conditions for the tobacco farmworkers in their supply chain.
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Organizer" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] .
2 attachments
FLOC Constitutional Convention.pdf
45K
Convention sponsorship forms.pdf
368K