RALEIGH — The prolonged boycott of the Mt. Olive Pickle Company officially came to a close Thursday when representatives of the North Carolina-based firm and officials from the North Carolina Growers Association and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee signed agreements to improve farmworker conditions, restructure product pricing and provide for union recognition.
Representatives at a press conference said the pact would lead to the largest single unionization in the history of North Carolina.
“I am one pickle packer who is glad to be out of a pickle today,” Mt. Olive President Bill Bryan said.
The boycott, organized by FLOC in 1999 to force Mt. Olive to improve worker conditions at farms the firm contracts, lasted five years without resolution and was supported by religious groups like the United Methodist Church. Duke removed Mt. Olive products from its campus stores in 2001 but reversed its decision within a year, citing improved conditions for growers indirectly employed by Mt. Olive.
The most important component of one agreement signed Thursday will now allow NCGA-affiliated “guest workers”— laborers from foreign countries with no permanent legal status in the United States—to unionize. Although most of that agreement is between FLOC union organizers and all NCGA growers, a second, more specific pact will compel Mt. Olive’s contracted farmowners to pay a 10-percent wage increase over the next three years.
The new terms consist of 17 provisions, including a “Grievance Procedure,” which allows workers to complain about conditions without losing their jobs. The FLOC-NCGA agreement also permits employees bereavement leave and guaranteed time off after seven consecutive workdays.
Some of these privileges have long been granted to American workers, but NCGA Executive Director Stan Eury and FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez said Thursday’s agreement was the first to afford rights such as unionization to the guest workers, whose temporary status forced them to work harrowing hours under grueling conditions.
Eury called the agreement “the most progressive employer-worker agreement in the nation.”
All three sides’ representatives considered the agreement a victory. While Mt. Olive’s Bryan saw his own company getting out of a jam, FLOC workers were pleased with the outcome of their five-year struggle.
“We’ve been saying ‘hasta la victoria’ for a long time—it’s come today!” said Bishop Joseph Gossman, head of the Catholic Diocese of Raleigh. Gossman was at the press conference in support of the farmworkers, many of whom are Catholic.
Despite the rancor that has developed between FLOC on one side and Mt. Olive and NCGA on the other, the three officials were complimentary to one another. Eury described Velasquez as “an Energizer bunny” who doggedly advocated for his constituents; Velasquez described Eury and Bryan as “worthy opponents” and complemented Mt. Olive’s forthrightness.
“What I respect most about [Mt. Olive] is that they open themselves to scrutiny,” Velasquez said. “They are an open book.”
Both Eury and Velasquez acknowledged that the farms in the NCGA were disclosing to the government sufficient information about working conditions, and that firms who used illegal aliens were the most likely to mistreat their workers.
“We’re certainly going after those firms that have undocumented workers, because I agree with some of the critics that those workers are the worst off,” Velasquez said. “No human being is illegal,” he added to a chorus of cheers.
With the boycott over, FLOC hopes to extend its influence, both directly and indirectly. Velasquez said he hopes other agricultural businesses will reform their labor practices without any boycott after seeing the outcome of the Mt. Olive conflict. Velasquez also said this agreement did not mean all three groups were on the same page, but that Thursday’s terms of accord, having concluded half a decade of boycotting and poor working conditions, were “what reconciliation is all about.”
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.