Are you a faith leader? Stand up for farmworkers in North Carolina’s tobacco fields

Tobacco farm workers face sub-minimum wages, human trafficking, pesticide poisoning, inadequate housing, nicotine poisoning, COVID, unscrupulous labor contractors, and laws that make it difficult to form unions. For years, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) has organized among these farm workers, but gains in one location are often undermined by losses in another.

These workers are spread across hundreds of small growers in North Carolina and neighboring states, but all sell their harvest to Reynolds American, which is owned by British American Tobacco (BAT). The solution is clear: BAT must work with FLOC to ensure worker rights are protected throughout its supply chain.

If you are a priest, deacon, religious or even a lay leader of a Catholic organization, you can help. The Catholic Labor Network is working with the National Farm Worker Ministry on a letter to British American Tobacco calling for them to negotiate such an agreement with FLOC to protect freedom of association in the fields.

CLICK HERE to read the letter and add your name!

Thank you for taking action to secure justice for farmworkers.