Forwarded from the: Farm Labor Organizing  Committee, AFL-CIO

 PO Box 557  Dudley, NC  28333    919-731-4433   www.floc.com

 6/7/04

FLOC WINS SETTLEMENT FOR FARM WORKER WHO DIED

ON THE JOB IN EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), union of migrant farm workers, has won a lump-sum

claim of $110,000 for the death of Urbano Ramirez Miranda.  Mr. Ramirez died on June 6, 2001 after

picking cucumbers and tobacco on a Halifax county farm run by Jake Taylor Farms.  The decision

comes nearly three years after his death.

The death of Urbano Ramirez pushed forward with renewed urgency FLOC’s growing Boycott of

Mt. Olive Pickle Co.  Mr. Ramirez died after picking cucumbers supplied to Nash Produce, a Mt. Olive

supplier in Nashville, North Carolina.  FLOC called the boycott in 1999 after Mt. Olive refused to

negotiate a multi-party collective bargaining agreement with FLOC’s members in order to improve

wages, living and working conditions, and to give a voice to the thousands of workers who harvest

Mt. Olive’s cucumbers.

The North Carolina Department of Labor fined Jake Taylor farms $1,850 for violations of health

and safety standards in the fields that led to Mr. Ramirez’ death.  In the fields where Mr. Ramirez labored,

there were no adequate first aid facilities, beer was sold to workers instead of providing water in individual

cups, and sanitary toilets or handwashing facilities were lacking.  Mr. Ramirez fell ill and was told by his

supervisor to sit under a tree after reporting a nosebleed in the fields.  He was left there after the crew

finished work and his body was found nearly 2 weeks later by co-workers.

Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC’s founder and president will lead a delegation of students and workers to

Mexico to give the money to Mr. Ramirez’ widow, Zoila Ramirez and five children in Atlixta, Guerrero

Mexico.  FLOC raised thousands of dollars to help support the Ramirez family while the claim was pending.

“Although this case has been settled, there are still thousands of workers suffering in the fields for the

Mt. Olive Pickle Co.  We must continue to struggle and demand justice because workers continue to

suffer without a voice in the workplace,” said President Baldemar Velasquez. 

The Mount Olive boycott recently won world-wide support as it was endorsed by the United Methodist

Church on May 7th, calling for Mt. Olive enter into collective bargaining negotiations with FLOC.

For more information contact: Robert Willis, FLOC NC Attorney 919-821-9131 or Leticia Zavala,

Field Organizer in North Carolina, (813) 478-4807.