Farm workers and their allies delivered nearly 5,000 letters from consumers around the country to convenience chain Kangaroo Express at its headquarters in Cary, N.C., this week. The letters call on its chairman of the board, Edwin Holman, to visit the tobacco fields and see firsthand the harsh working conditions of those who toil for Reynolds American .
For months, consumers and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee ( FLOC ) have been urging Kangaroo Express, the largest convenience store chain in the Southeast that sells tobacco products, to encourage Reynolds American to develop with FLOC a written agreement guaranteeing freedom of association and collective bargaining for thousands of tobacco farm workers in North Carolina.
After more than four years of pressure from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee ( FLOC ) and other worker advocates, several of the largest tobacco companies, tobacco growers and workers are close to sitting down to discuss the issues of freedom of association without fear of retaliation, wages, housing, forced labor and other issues.
In a major turnaround, officials of Reynolds American, who have refused for three years to meet with representatives of tobacco workers, agreed last week to look into the labor practices in their supply chain and work with other parties, including the Farm Labor Organizing Committee ( FLOC ) to ensure they are not complicit with human rights violations.
The nearly 100,000 workers who travel to North Carolina each summer to harvest the state’s tobacco crop are often repaid for their hard work with sub-minimum wages, dangerous conditions in the fields and inhumane living conditions, according to findings released today from a human rights assessment conducted by Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee ( FLOC ).
Union activists joined with members of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement ( LCLAA ) to rally in front of the British Embassy in Washington, D.C., and British consulates in nine cities. The marchers called on British American Tobacco (BAT), the largest stockholder in U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American , to use its influence to stop “widespread and egregious” human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers.
Across the country late last week, hundreds of union members, religious leaders, community activists, farm workers and victims of bank home foreclosures protested at 200 JPMorgan Chase branches to demand the bank respect the basic human rights of people to have decent places to live and work.
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