Down on the farm:
Cort, John C
DOWN ON THE FARM CALL FOR A BOYCOTT BALDEMAR VELASQUEZ is an impressive man. He came to Boston recently to speak to a meeting of the Labor Guild, the organization that Fathers Mort Gavin and Ed...
...The farmer said, "Take it or leave it...
...FLOC: We do not claim to represent all ten thousand...
...Robinson, director of consumer services...
...Since there are two farmers anxious to sign contracts to sell tomatoes to such companies as Campbell's Soup and Libby for every farmer that signs, the corporations can tell the farmer,' 'Take it or leave it," just as the farmer told Velasquez's father...
...FLOC presently has 1243 dues-paying members and over 2200 on authorization cards, most of whom are on strike...
...FLOC: Ohio farmers do not pay hourly wages, but the piece rates paid averaged out to $ 1.96 per hour, according to the only accurate survey made, which was conducted by the American Friends Service Committee...
...He seemed reluctant to go into that, but it appears that Chavez, who strongly supports the strike and boycott and habitually refers to Velasquez as "our great leader and friend," is not anxious to accept FLOC's affiliation until it has won at least one major contract...
...Clair St., Toledo, OH 43609...
...I had a question of my own for Velasquez: why isn't FLOC affiliated with Chavez's Farm Workers and the AFL-CIO...
...Velasquez reminds you of a younger, leaner Cesar Chavez...
...He came to Boston recently to speak to a meeting of the Labor Guild, the organization that Fathers Mort Gavin and Ed Boyle have kept in a state of health long after most of America had forgotten that the church and labor are supposed to be friends and allies...
...The union is demanding an hourly rate of $3.50, that is, when piece rates don't add up to that...
...This, of course, while their farm policy is forcing the farm workers' children to stay in the fields picking tomatoes when they should be in school...
...The major effort, however, was aimed at the tomato-growers in Ohio, second only in volume to California...
...One of its leaflets includes the entire text of a letter to Campbell's Soup customers by D.Y...
...Of the gross receipts of the industry the farmers receive 9 percent, the farm workers 4 percent, the cannery workers 4 percent and the processors 83 percent...
...Most of those are employed by farmers contracted to Heinz, Hunt's, and other processors...
...Faced with the bedrock facts of tomato economics, over two thousand workers had in 1978 walked off Ohio farms contracted to Campbell and Libby...
...The Labor Department surveys are done at peak season only, excluding the slower beginning and end, and they are based on the farmers' pay records, which don't reflect the number of individuals included on each paycheck...
...Those who want to help can reach FLOC at 714Vi S. St...
...The propriety is obvious to anyone who examines the bargaining relationship between the farmers and Campbell...
...The U.S...
...Despite this temptation many Catholic schools have supported the boycott, figuring the educational and moral value for themselves and their children outweighs the value of the equipment...
...In 1968 he founded the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to represent the estimated 30,000 workers who annually migrate from Texas and Florida to work tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, and other crops on Midwest farms...
...After negotiating some contracts with individual farmers, FLOC concluded that the farmers, too, were victims of the giant corporations...
...It was the biggest agricultural walk-out in the history of the Midwest...
...If Campbell is serious in questioning our credibility with the workers, we offer to have a secret ballot election with simple rules: if we win, Campbell gives us an agreement, and if we lose, we'll go away...
...They are also asking a substantial increase in the piece rate, a guarantee of twenty-eight hours of work for every two weeks, as provided by law in Wisconsin, and some contribution to the expense of retraining farm workers when they are replaced by machines...
...Campbell: FLOC has only thirty-five dues-paying members and claims only one thousand out of ten thousand involved in the tomato harvest...
...He told us of one moment that was crucial in steeling his own mind and will to lead the tomato-pickers of Ohio in a fight against the agribusinesses that were exploiting his fellow Mexican-Americans...
...Labor Department says that in 1978 the average pay for picking Ohio tomatoes was $4.32 per hour, well above the minimum wage...
...FLOC: It is not illegal, but very common, for more than two parties to enter into contracts...
...The following are summaries of Robinson's defense for Campbell and Velasquez's rebuttal for FLOC...
...Over two thousand workers walked out of the tomato fields contracted to Campbell and Libby in 1978...
...Campbell: It would be "improper and presumptuous" and possibly illegal for Campbell to interfere in the bargaining relationship between farmers and their employees...
...JOHN C. CORT...
...And like Velasquez's father, they take it...
...Bishops' Campaign for Human Development has given FLOC $89,000, but this is nothing compared to the resources of Campbell's Soup and Nestle's...
...For example, a man's wife and children will often be included on one paycheck...
...FLOC is one of the few union organizations that gives you the adversary' s side of the story at the same time that it presents its own...
...The latter, in effect, dictate the wages and conditions of work when they negotiate their own contracts with the farmers...
...The parent company of Libby is Nestle, and since religious and liberal groups are already promoting a boycott of Nestle for its hardsell policy of peddling baby formula in Third World countries despite thousands of deaths from bottle-feeding, the plight of Ohio's farm workers is another good reason to observe that boycott...
...One day as a boy he watched his father protest when a farmer handed him his pay and the pay was substantially less than the farmer had promised him...
...Like Chavez he grew and ripened in the fields that produce the food America eats...
...His father took it and Baldemar felt deep inside himself the humiliation and bitterness of that unequal contest...
...This is a special challenge to the Catholic community because Campbell's Soup has had a successful campaign to persuade Catholic and other schools to have their children collect Campbell labels, for which they give these schools valuable equipment...
...Campbell's is so powerful that it tells its growers when to plant, when to spray, when to harvest, and in 1979 ordered all of them to mechanize their harvests and eliminate the farm workers...
...They are still on strike, and they are asking the American public to boycott all Campbell products (including V-8, Pepperidge Farms, Franco-American, and Swanson) and Libby products (including Taster's Choice, Nescafe, Nestea, and Stouffer's Frozen Dinners...
...Campbell: The U.S...
Vol. 108 • August 1981 • No. 15
