FLOC Win Gets $1.475 Million for North Carolina Migrant Farm Workers

by James Parks, Mar 17, 2006

More than 15,000 migrant farm workers in North Carolina moved a big step closer toward achieving fair treatment in the workplace.

A Wake County (N.C.) Superior Court judge issued a settlement March 10 in a class-action suit spearheaded by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) against the North Carolina Growers Association (NCGA). The suit—filed before FLOC and the NCGA signed a historic collective bargaining agreement in 2004—sought to force some 1,000 growers to pay for all visa and transportation costs for temporary workers under the H-2A guest worker program.

According to the settlement, the growers will set up a $1.475 million fund to compensate temporary agricultural workers for illegal wage deductions. The settlement also ensures growers will pay recruiting, visa, border crossing and transportation fees in Mexico or the United States, which will save farm workers some $4 million over the next two years.

FLOC, which received a national charter from the AFL-CIO, represents 10,000 farm workers in the Midwest and North Carolina. FLOC and the NCGA signed an innovative, ground-breaking bargaining agreement in 2004, allowing farm workers in a guest worker program to have a union for the first time. Under the agreement, the workers receive at least a half day of rest per week, a full day’s pay to recover from an injury, a grievance procedure, seniority system, three days’ paid funeral leave and other new rights.

Read more about the settlement.

Print This Article | E-Mail This Article |Comments (0)