BY PAT LEAMON
DURHAM, North Carolina - Union activists and farm workers
from throughout North Carolina and other states came here
October 10 to launch a union contract fight at Mt. Olive Pickle
Co. and the growers who provide cucumbers for it. For more than
a year the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) has been part
of a campaign to organize the migrant farm workers in eastern
North Carolina who harvest cucumbers for Mt. Olive, the largest
pickle company in the region. Some 2,000 workers have signed
union authorization cards.
In June 70 farm workers and supporters marched for 70 miles on the highway from Mt. Olive to the state capitol in Raleigh.
About 25 farm workers attended the meeting in Durham carrying red flags that read "FLOC: Hasta la victoria!" Students from various area campuses including Warren Wilson College, Duke University, Appalachian State attended, as well as young people from Student Action with Farm workers, El Centro Hispano, and the Young Socialists. Speakers included AFL- CIO state president James Andrews and longtime civil rights activist Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.
Mount Olive Pickle Company has refused to negotiate with the 7,000 farm workers.