Over 200 Religious Leaders Sign a Letter Sent to Reynolds CEO on Behalf of Tobacco Farm Workers
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is seeking to address labor and human rights abuses suffered by farm workers who pick tobacco, such as sub-minimum wages, child labor, heat stroke, pesticide poisoning, uninhabitable housing, green tobacco sickness, lack of water, lack of breaks, and fatalities. Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) is one of the largest tobacco [...]
Memorials for Joan Papert Preiss, Farm Worker Activist
by Virginia Nesmith Former National Farm Worker Ministry Board Member Joan Papert Preiss, passed away on June 1, 2012 in Durham, North Carolina. Joan was an amazing woman - as her obituary published in the Raleigh News & Observer attests to, and re-printed below. While those of us at NFWM knew of her love of family and [...]
MSNBC Reporting Describes Same Farm Worker Housing Conditions Seen by NFWM Delegation
On October 7th, NFWM led a delegation of religious leaders to North Carolina to visit farm worker labor camps there with staff of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee(FLOC). Members of the National Council of Churches Justice and Advocacy Commission and representatives of the United Methodist Church and the Alliance of Baptists saw for themselves the [...]
Oxfam & FLOC Release New Report
“A company’s responsibility to respect [human rights] applies across its business activities and through its relationship with third parties connected with those activities—such as business partners, entities in its value chain, and other non-state actors and state agents.” – James Ruggie, UN special representative On September 18, 2011, Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing [...]
Intern Blog: Farm Workers and Small Farmers
Ryan Nilsen, NFWM intern through Duke Divinity School In our evening outreach to farm workers over the past few weeks, Octavio and I have ended up being able to have quite a few conversations with farm owners as well as farm workers. We don’t really seek them out (as most of them already speak English [...]
NFWM Intern Video Interview on Child Farmworkers
NFWM Student Action with Farmworkers intern Octavio Garcia-Ruiz on having grown up as a child farm worker. To see videos of other Student Action with Farmworkers interns discussing their experiences as child farm workers, click the links below: Leticia interview Victor interview
Intern Blog: Language and Power
Ryan Nilsen, NFWM intern through Duke Divinity School As Octavio and I walked up to the front step of an old trailer next to a tobacco field outside of Gibsonville, North Carolina, I asked him, “Do you mind speaking first again?” He smiled and said, “No problem, man.” It was an early summer Sunday afternoon, [...]
Intern Blog: First Visit to Camps
Written by Octavio Garcia-Ruiz, NFWM intern through Student Action with Farmworkers. Sunday June 19th was the first day that we did outreach. Driving out on the country roads felt good, like I was back home. The camps that we went to were not too difficult to find. The reason why were out there is not [...]
Intern Blog: First Full Week of NFWM Work
Written by Octavio Garcia-Ruiz, NFWM intern through Student Action with Farmworkers. Starting the first full week of work felt real good, I was excited. I finally started what I came here to do. There many new things that were learned, some good, most bad because of of what they were. They were about how farmworkers [...]
NFWM Joins Courthouse Vigil Seeking Justice for Maria Isavel
NFWM staffers Lucy Boutte and Margarita Mota, along with other NFWM supporters from the Los Angeles area, traveled to Stockton, CA to join hundreds of farm worker supporters and the UFW for a two day vigil calling for justice in the 2008 heat death of pregnant 17-year old farm worker Maria Isavel Vasquez Jimenez. The [...]
