Bishop takes up fight, calls pickers' cause just

National Catholic Reporter, July 17, 1998 by Patrick O'Neill

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. -- Bolstered by the support of Raleigh Bishop F. Joseph Gossman and state labor leaders, a campaign to organize cucumber pickers is gaining momentum in a state that has a history of hostility toward organized labor.

The effort is being led by the Toledo, Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, known as FLOC. The union has targeted specifically the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, the South's largest pickle operation.

For four days last month, union founder and president Baldemar Velasquez maintained a steady cadence as he led a 70-mile march along North Carolina highways under a sweltering early summer sun. The march began June 23 at the pickle company's mare gate and ended June 26 on the state capitol steps in Raleigh.

When the march began it was still unclear if Gossman would accept an invitation to address a rally at the capitol. By week's end, however. Gossman, who had posed a list of questions to Velasquez, was satisfied that the union's muse was just. He addressed the rally.

"We have a very hot day here today, but we have a very hot topic as well," Gossman told a cheering crowd of about 200 union supporters. The bishop praised the mostly Hispanic farm labor force for playing "a vital role in the economic life of our state."

"During these years we have tried to do what we can by offering to assist those in need, especially those in the Hispanic community," Gossman said. "But that is the work of charity. We're here today not to talk about charity but about justice. There are many people in our society that are looking for justice, and certainly the farm workers are among the most needy and the ones that are the most deserving of [justice].

"Basic justice demands that people be assured a minimum level of participation in the economy," Gossman said. "It is wrong for a person or a group to be excluded unfairly or to be unable to participate or contribute to the economy. Farm workers need to be partners around the table with growers [and] of all is reached."

At the rally, Velasquez announced plans to return to the state in October with "national figures" to convene a "boycott consultation." Velasquez said he expects the union to begin a boycott of Mt. Olive Pickle Company products early in 1999.

Mt. Olive CEO William Bryan, whose company distributes its products in at least 18 states, has refused to enter into talks with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, which Velasquez founded 21 years ago.

In May of last year, Velasquez first contacted Bryan, asking that the company consider being party to a collective bargaining agreement with farm workers and cucumber growers. Bryan, whose 500 workers are also nonunion, has steadfastly refused the union's overtures, saying that his company is being singled out by the union because of its high name recognition.

"This is an issue between the farmers and the farm workers," Bryan said. "We are not the employer of any of those workers."

In an effort to assure a steady supply of cucumbers, however, the company signs contracts with many growers before the seeds are sown. It is this practice that the union says puts the onus on Mt. Olive to come to the bargaining table with farm workers.

In the 1980s Velasquez led a long and successful campaign in Ohio to get the Campbell's Soup Co. to agree to a labor agreement with farm workers and tomato growers. That effort brought national attention to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and led, in 1990, to Velasquez's receiving a prestigious MacArthur Fellows Award.

A gifted organizer, the charismatic Velasquez said the march was an effort to bring national media attention to the union's efforts. Along the route marchers carried red flags emblazoned with the union logo and the words, Hasta La Victoria (Until victory).

An evangelical minister, Velasquez walked every mile, never riding in the support vehicles. He gave interviews as he walked, confidently proclaiming that God is in the union's corner.

"The cries of the harvesters reach the ears of the Lord of Hosts," he said, quoting the Letter of James. "I believe that God has heard the cries of these farm workers, that there has to be somebody acting that out so that the fruit of justice can come to bear.

"The important thing is to get the attention of the nation focused on North Carolina. If you don't have anybody's attention, everything you do will go for naught. Farm workers cannot win right here in their local area within the state. It has to be a national campaign. So we're setting the stage for a national campaign at Mt. Olive."

The union has a field office near Mount Olive, but Velasquez, a 51-year-old father of four, says he does not plan to move from Ohio to North Carolina to coordinate the campaign. Instead he's leaving the day-to-day organizing to a cadre of lieutenants, some of whom have many years with the organization but who lack the name recognition and smooth leadership style of the Texas-born Velasquez.

Unlike the early days when the Farm Labor Organizing Committee didn't have the support of other unions, Velasquez and his supporters are now welcome in labor union halls. North Carolina state AFL-CIO president James Andrews has pledged to back the union campaign. Velasquez has met regularly with Andrews, and the state labor official has given speeches at union rallies.