FLOC launches ambitious plans in tobacco fields

[Omaha Steve]

X post in Socialist-Progressive

http://labornotes.org/2014/07/floc-launches-ambitious-plans-tobacco-fields


FLOC contracts cover 7,000 of the 30,000 tobacco workers in North Carolina. This summer, a team of 30 organizers will try to sign up 5,000 new union members. (Photo: FLOC.)


By David Flores, Labor Notes

My life as a farmworker began when I was nine years old, working alongside my parents harvesting cucumbers, tomatoes, cherries, and strawberries.

This summer, my heart is leading me back to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to be part of the largest farmworker organizing drive since Cesar Chavez.

I come from a family of 14 brothers and sisters, all of whom worked in the fields in their childhoods. We worked because there was no childcare in the labor camp where we lived, and because all our hands were needed to earn enough to support the family.

I remember feeling that there was no end to the work. The crops seasons would come and go, but there would always be another season and more work to do. I looked forward to school, because it meant I didn’t have to work in the field that day.

'The union is us'

FULL story at link.

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