CHICAGO TRIBUNE

April 19, 2006

Farm union helps in recruiting and hiring immigrant workers

A firm figure for solidarity

By STEPHEN FRANKLIN
Chicago Tribune

At a time when the debate about the issue of migrant workers has never been louder, Baldemar Velasquez's union already may have found one answer.

The muscular 59-year-old grandfather heads the Toledo, Ohio-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee, composed of about 8,000 undocumented workers and another 6,000 Mexicans recruited for short-term work.

Velasquez's union is in the unique position of recruiting and hiring immigrant workers, negotiating their pay and investigating grievances.

In a recent case in North Carolina, the union won a $1.4 million lawsuit on behalf of workers who suffered illegal pay deductions.

Never before has a U.S. union represented workers brought into the country under the H-2A temporary visa program.

In February the union joined the AFL-CIO. While union leaders praised FLOC for joining their ranks, at the same time they blasted administration and business-supported proposals for a guest worker plan that would treat thousands of immigrants as temporary workers.

"We have been very skeptical of guest worker programs," said AFL-CIO spokeswoman Denise Mitchell.

The AFL-CIO embraces the farmworkers' union, she explained, because it recruits the workers who join its ranks, arranges transportation for them to and from the U.S. and monitors their treatment by employers. FLOC intercedes if it suspects members are being abused or their rights have been infringed upon, she said.

Political side

As politicians in Washington wrangle over proposals dealing with illegal immigrants, the AFL-CIO recently repeated its opposition to any agreement that does not give full rights to immigrant workers.

"The idea that any group of workers in America should be treated as less than equal is downright appalling," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

Without money, training or a following, Velasquez founded the union when he was 20 years old. He nurtured it by working as a stevedore, musician and furniture repairman in Toledo. It took his union 20 years to win its first contract.

Personal experience

The spark that set Velasquez on his union leader path traces back to when he and his family were migrant cucumber pickers in the Midwest.

As a farmworker child, Velasquez said, he often felt anger and hopelessness, especially sleeping in dirty, unheated farm sheds and watching others berate his parents and then having to labor even harder when his mother and father fell sick and could not support the family.

Velasquez has used his Midwestern base and his connections in Mexico to benefit his union and U.S. companies.

For example, when Midwest farmers who sell tomato paste to giant firms like H.J. Heinz Co. and Campbell Soup Co. complained in the late 1980s that they could not compete with cheaper Mexican-grown products, Velasquez turned to Mexican farmworker labor groups for help. They were in the midst of bargaining in that country.

"They got their best contracts ever," he recalled, adding that price competition from Mexico also slacked off, helping Midwest farmers and their migrant employees.

Velasquez's union marked a major milestone in 1986 when it won its own agreement with Campbell Soup and its Midwest farmers, culminating nearly 20 years of organizing and bargaining. Soon afterward, other major firms and their growers signed similar deals.