Laws: January, 2004 - Number #05

In March 1999, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), announced a consumer boycott of the products of North Carolina-based Mt. Olive Pickle Company. Mt. Olive requires local growers who provide cucumbers to sign a statement asserting they are in compliance with state and federal laws regulating pay, hours and housing conditions for migrant workers. FLOC asked Mt. Olive to recognize FLOC as bargaining representative for their growers' workers. In March 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers called for a national consumer boycott of Taco Bell restaurants because Taco Bell buys tomatoes from Six Ls Packing Company, which has refused to meet with the CIW and raise piece rates for picking tomatoes from current rates of about $0.40 per 32-pound bucket. Taco Bell says it offered restaurant jobs to dis-satisfied tomato pickers, but none applied, and growers say that changed farming practices have increased average worker productivity from 12 buckets an hour in 1980 to 22 buckets an hour today. Tomatoes are Florida's No. 1 vegetable crop, with 70 commercial growers generating revenues of about $400 million a year. Three CIW leaders won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award in November 2003 for their help in convicting three farm labor contractors of slavery and extortion charges in 2002. They were credited with "using pretty creative tactics to help other migrant workers get out of those [slavery] situations." The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches (http://www.ciw-online.org/), 36 mainline denominations with 50 million members, in November 2003 approved resolutions endorsing the boycotts of Taco Bell and Mt. Olive Pickle Co. The Illinois Nurserymen's Association says the state's nearly 3,000 nurseries and landscaping firms do $4 billion of business a year and employ 175,000 workers; half of whom were born in Mexico. One nursery said that the Mexicans have sharply reduced turnover: from 425 workers hired to fill 200 jobs to far fewer "extra" hires. Bill Broadway, "Churches back boycotts over migrant workers," Washington Post, November 22, 2003. Kari Lydersen, "Immigrant Advocates Win Award," Washington Post, November 20, 2003.