RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER

March 8, 2007

Union pushes to keep farmworkers safe
Rally salutes six who died in N.C.

Kristin Collins, Staff Writer

The farmworkers union that took on Mount Olive Pickle Co. is starting a new push in North Carolina, this time focusing on farmworkers' deaths.

Supporters of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, including several state and national church leaders, gathered Wednesday in downtown Raleigh to protest what they called the needless deaths of farmworkers.

The groups said state records show that six farmworkers have died from heat-related illnesses in the past two years, and that in some cases, those workers were discouraged from drinking water or taking breaks.

Baldemar Velásquez, the union president, said many of North Carolina's farmworkers still have so few rights that they are afraid to ask for water during long, hot days in the fields.

"Right here in the United States, the greatest democracy in the world, we've got people being subjugated to that kind of fear," Velásquez said. "That can't continue."

Several activists said the rally, held in Nash Square, was the start of an effort that could result in boycotts of major companies and a campaign to organize more N.C. farmworkers.

Velásquez said he will work to find out which farms and companies are responsible for the deaths. Religious leaders vowed to help in the coming months, by visiting farms and gathering information about abuses of farmworkers.

Religious groups also played a key role in the success of the union's five-year boycott of Mount Olive. They helped the union force Mount Olive, along with the labor contracting company that brings workers from Mexico to pick cucumbers, to sign a union agreement. As a result of the deal, signed in 2004, most of the legal migrant farmworkers who come to North Carolina each year are now represented by Velásquez's union.

Velásquez said those workers now feel secure enough to demand basic rights and question their employers' practices.

But he said there are still tens of thousands of illegal immigrants working on farms who have few rights or legal protections.

 

'You don't see them'

Bob Edgar, a former congressman who is general counsel for the National Council of Churches, traveled from New York to attend the rally. He said that, despite the success with Mount Olive, many farmworkers still work in inhumane conditions. He said all farmworkers should be assured fair pay, good health care, access to education and decent housing.

"You don't see them. You don't think about them," Edgar said. "People go to the grocery store and buy cucumbers and tomatoes picked in North Carolina and never know that the workers were exploited."

Advocates for farmers dispute that farmworkers are systematically abused.

Jake Parker, the legislative director for the N.C. Farm Bureau, said no farmer wants to see his workers killed or injured. He said the bureau works to raise awareness about the dangers of heat stroke.

"The majority of farmers in the state try to treat their workers with dignity and follow the law," Parker said.

Rally participants lit candles and held crosses marked with the names of workers who have died in North Carolina in the past several years from such causes as heat stroke and pesticide exposure.

Sergio Sanchez, a former farmworker who harvested tobacco alongside his parents, said he feels certain many deaths go unreported.

"They're not getting the support or the advice to know what their rights are," said Sanchez, 24, who now runs a Mexican store and a debris removal business in Dudley. "They're still treated like objects."