Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) workers and their allies emerged victorious from a 5-year national boycott of Mount Olive Pickle Company, winning union representation and higher wages for more than 8000 cucumber pickers brought to North Carolina farms through the federal H-2A visa program. The agreement between FLOC, the North Carolina Growers Association and Mount Olive Pickle Company represents another success in holding major food packaging corporations responsible for the working conditions of the farm laborers who supply their vegetables.

Farm workers are among the most vulnerable laborers inthe United States. Federal legislation excludes them from many rights most other workers enjoy—a minimum wage, overtime pay and the ability to engage in collective bargaining.

Responding to growers’ attempts to lower labor costs by increasing acreage in the South, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) began an organizing campaign among North Carolina cucumber pickers in 1997. Mount Olive Pickle Company, the cucumber growers’ biggest client and the second largest pickle company in the U.S., has almost total control over the growing process, from supplying the seeds to determining the crop price. However, the company refused to be accountable for the abymsal working conditions pickers faced: overcrowded and substandard housing, a lack of portable toilets or hand-washing facilities in the workplace, and wages far below the poverty line. In 1999, FLOC decided to conduct a national boycott to force Mount Olive to negotiate a multi-party agreement between the union, the growers and the processor.

DataCenter provided campaign research support to FLOC in 1999 and again this year as the organizing campaign gathered more workers’ signatures daily, and the boycott increased its support from a growing number of interfaith communities, worker alliances and community-based organizations. Even grocers carrying Mount Olive pickles called upon the company to negotiate. Under pressure of a broadening boycott movement, Mount Olive indicated a willingness to hold discussions with workers’ representatives.

Mount Olive Pickle Co. promised to raise the price it pays growers by 10 percent over three years, while growers said they will increase workers wages by the same amount. The growers association also agreed to study how to improve housing and health care for the farm workers.

For further information see Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO