A Farm Workers Union Leader Offers

A Unique Message and Sound Advice

By Harry Kelber  

I seldom receive a direct message from any member of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, either friendly or critical, so I was pleased to get one from Baldemar Velasquez, the president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), who was elected to the Council at the AFL-CIO’ s 2009 convention.

Here is his  unsolicited e-mail message to my web site, printed in full:

 “Hey Harry,

  “I'm on the AFL-CIO executive council and I don't fit your

 description.  I don't even come close to the 6-figure

 salary and I'm not asking to be in that category

(check the DOL LM-2 documents on the web.)  We put

 all our money into organizing.   I don't have a pension

 either and I'm not asking for one because the hard

working people I represent don't have one.   When we

 get a pension for the farm workers, I'll take what we

 get for them   Although I take your criticisms to heart,

 be careful that your paintbrush not be too broad.

Hasta La Victoria!
Baldemar Velasquez
President, Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO

Baldemar Velasquez is one of those rare labor leaders who are totally committed to spending their lifetime careers in organizing and improving the lives of working people. At age six and through the years he was growing up, he worked in the agricultural fields in Ohio and learned of the  abusive treatment that farm workers, like his family, were suffering, under the worst working and living conditions imaginable.

While still a college undergraduate, the 20-year-old Velasquez, with the help of his father, founded the Farm Labor Organizing Committee in 1967. The following year, FLOC struck  farms in northwestern Ohio and won 33 contracts. in negotiations with the growers.  But Velasquez began to realize that he had to include the giant food multinationals in order to control the supply chain of farm vegetables.

FLOG Compels Campbell Soup to Sign 3-Party Agreement

In 1978, FLOG launched its historic strike against Campbell Soup and Libby’s tomato operations, during which it used mass rallies, marches of hundreds of miles, petitions, picketing, hunger strikes, boycotts and other forms of non-violent pressure, to force Campbell to the collective bargaining table after eight years of struggle. Under Velasquez’s unprecedented plan, representatives of the farm workers, growers and Campbell worked out a three-party agreement, defining the responsibilities of each group, to be overseen by an agricultural  labor relations board. The agreement provided farm workers with higher wages, better housing,  healthier working conditions, medical benefits and a grievance procedure.

Velasquez’s plan was aimed at controlling the supply chain of agricultural products from unfair competition. FLOC was able to bring other giant food corporations, like Vlasic, Heinz and Deans Food, to sign the three-party agreement. FLOC won a contract at Mt. Olive Pickle Company in North Carolina after a five-year boycott which had the endorsement of  some 200 organizations.

*   *   *   *   *

FLOC has begun  a campaign to organize the 20,000 tobacco cutters who work for R. J. Reynolds’ tobacco empire in North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Kentucky. On September 7th (the day after Labor Day), FLOC will announce  a boycott of JP Morgan Chase, 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 United States. The union is asking its supporters to pledge that unless Chase withdraws its financial backing of Reynolds tobacco conglomerate, they will be urged to withdraw their accounts from Chase and deposit them elsewhere.

Brother Velasquez, I am taking to heart your wise counsel not to paint my brush too broadly. I know there are honest, dedicated unionists among the 51 members of the AFL-CIO Executive Council, but all of them have never criticized the actions of the Council that prevent honest elections and have even benefited from the lack of union democracy. I can’t overlook that.

But I will be glad to let any of them present their uncensored views personally on my web sites.—Harry Kelber