TOLEDO BLADE

November 19, 2008

FLOC sends postcards to Reynolds American

The Toledo-based Farm Labor Organizing Committee plans to deliver several thousand postcards today to the headquarters of Reynolds American Inc. in Winston-Salem, N.C., in support of its campaign to organize tobacco workers.

Using a strategy successfully employed in the tomato processing industry of northwest Ohio and pickle industry of North Carolina, FLOC is seeking to bring about unionization by pressuring a large manufacturer to join in three-way talks with growers and farm workers.

The postcards, from FLOC supporters and firm “stakeholders,” urge Reynolds Chief Executive Susan Ivey to meet with FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez. Copies of the postcards also will be given to Reynolds directors in Ohio, New York, Florida, California, and Arizona.