The Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO is asking people to sign this letter demanding that Reynolds American negotiate with the union, take steps to reduce the danger tobacco farmworkers face from the coronavirus, and work to stop its suppliers from violating existing laws and labor agreements. Besides endangering the workers, allowing the coronavirus to spread among farmworkers and denying adequate medical attention increases the risk for everyone.
See: actionnetwork.org/letters/reynolds-can-save-lives-during-this-pandemic?source=direct_link&
"After six months of refusing to help farmworker communities, Gov. Roy Cooper [a Democrat, up for re-election this year and in the national news recently over the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, etc.] confirmed he will not do anything to help growers and workers cope with the pandemic. The same Governor who in 2017 met with the NC Farm Bureau but refused to meet with FLOC before signing S615, which targeted FLOC and stripped rights from farmworkers to join and form unions [ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article184853933.html?link_id=1&can_id=746ac0676c1f5c05d7883f6be6ff0a2f&source=email-nc-gov-cooper-and-reynolds-hypocrisy-demands-a-strong-response&email_referrer=email_911609&email_subject=nc-gov-cooper-and-reynolds-hypocrisy-demands-a-strong-response ].
When the Pandemic began hitting our community, we never thought the State government would do much and instead FLOC launched an aggressive program equipping members on hundreds of farms with supplies donated by supporters and used our collective power to ensure paid leave, medical access, and other protective policies were uniformly enforced.
An all too common story is that of Julian, an H2A worker who worked for a non-union labor contractor and contracted COVID in the workplace but wasn't provided with medical attention or [transportation] until FLOC provided it. After testing positive, he wasn't paid the required paid leave and was eventually forced by his employer to return to Mexico without appropriate medical attention and in debt, while his employer continued as normal, sending other sick workers to Mexico and simply replacing them.
Thousands of workers face significant barriers to testing and medical care, no paid leave, unsafe working conditions, all in the supply chains of some of the wealthiest corporations in the world like Whole Foods and Reynolds American.
The Governor and many politicians refuse to look at the agricultural supply chain and understand that while growers and workers struggle in this economy and this Pandemic, wealthy corporations like Reynolds American take advantage, squeezing cheap agricultural products out of us and refusing to take responsibility for the abuse in their supply chain or the serious danger their inaction puts on the farmworkers that make their wealth with our sweat.
We're calling on Reynolds American to finally take action and sign an agreement with FLOC that includes funding for improved housing, transportation, and paid leave to save lives in their supply chain. Please sign in support. Hasta la victoria!" [#BoycottVUSE]
Hear from candidates for commissioner of labor, agriculture, etc.
Farms, Food, and Hunger: A Conversation with the Candidates will be Wednesday, September 9th 7 - 8:30pm on ZOOM, with candidates for NC Commissioner of Agriculture (including Steve Troxler and Jennifer Wadsworth), NC Labor Commissioner (including Josh Dobson and Jessica Holmes), lieutenant governor (including Yvonne Holley), and Superintendent of Public Education (including Jen Mangrum and Catherine Truitt). Listeners will be able to submit questions and there will be Spanish translation. This non-partisan forum is hosted by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Feeding the Carolinas, MomsRising, NC Alliance for Health, NC Rural Center, and the Rural Advancement Foundation International - USA. See: bit.ly/FarmFoodHunger and www.facebook.com/events/3314782091914447
Blogger changes
Also, this month Blogger/Google changed the format of its user dashboard (the reader experience seems to be unchanged), making it much more difficult to use, like Wordpress. Hopefully it will get easier to use over time. It was possible to switch back in August, but not now. This isn't the reason there haven't been any recent posts this summer, though just writing this using the new system is a lot of trouble.
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