Search Results for 'Reynolds American'
Legislation & Politics |
Nov 18 |
New Polls Show Public Demands a Public Option, and More Health Care News
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We’re watching closely to see if the U.S. Senate begins its debate on health care this week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will unveil the Senate bill tonight and we could see the first vote to begin debate as early as Saturday.
As we make some progress in the Senate, however, let’s remember we need to make sure the bill that passes isn’t just reform in name only, but really helps people. That means we need a public health insurance option to compete with insurance companies and keep health care affordable for everyone.
Across the country, people understand that a public health insurance option matters:
- In a new AP poll: 52 percent support a public health insurance option compared with only 35 percent opposed.
- In a new Washington Post/ABC poll: 53 percent support a public option compared with 43 percent opposed.
- And in a new CBS poll, 61 percent of people said they wanted the choice of a public health insurance option.
In the States |
Nov 12 |
Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers
Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting ”Justice now!” and holding signs that read “Hasta la Victoria” (”Onward to Victory”), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF’s Gainesville campus.
The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.
The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF’s food provider. “Somebody’s got to fight for social justice,” said UF junior Justin Wooten.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Nov 5 |
FLOC: Mexico Doing Nothing to Solve Organizer’s Murder
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The murder two years ago of Rafael Santiago Cruz, an organizer for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in Monterrey, Mexico, is part of a corrupt system of supplying immigrant labor to harvest crops on America’s farms, says FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez. Over the past two days, Velasquez and members of his union have been in Washington, D.C., meeting with members of Congress and international human rights panels to push for justice in Cruz’s murder.
Yesterday, FLOC brought the case of Cruz’s murder before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an arm of the Organization of American States. After Cruz’s killing in 2007, the IACHR granted protective measures to Velasquez and FLOC staff located in Mexico.
The Mexican government has done little to solve the case. Of the four people who are known to have participated in the murder, all but one of Cruz’s killers remain at large, said Leonel Rivero Rodriquez, a Mexican human rights lawyer, at a briefing today at AFL-CIO headquarters.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 7 |
FLOC Calls for Justice at Reynolds, Immigration Reform
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Delegates to the Farm Labor Organizing Committee’s (FLOC’s) national convention reaffirmed their determination to go to the mat to gain basic human and labor rights for tobacco workers in North Carolina and other states who harvest the tobacco that R.J. Reynolds uses to make its products.
At the conclusion of FLOC’s 11th triennial convention in Toledo, Ohio, this past weekend, hundreds of FLOC members and supporters marched and rallied in the streets to demand that Reynolds, the nation’s second-largest tobacco company, give workers a voice on the job. They also called for quick action on comprehensive immigration reform.
Speaking to the convention on behalf of AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, Fred Azcarate, director of the AFL-CIO Voice@Work department, said the struggles of all workers are connected:
Whether you work in the fields or in a factory, whether you work in construction or communications, we know the best way for us to get ahead, to make a decent life for ourselves and our children is by forming a union and engaging in collective bargaining.
Workers in the U.S. have seen an almost steady erosion of wages. Wall Street has gotten rich while the rest of us struggle. Something has to change…it’s going to take work at the grassroots level. We need to build our power. We need to build our unions.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Feb 5 |
Make a Call for Tobacco Worker Justice
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For nearly two years, Susan Ivey, the CEO of Reynolds American, the parent of the nation’s second-largest tobacco company, has refused to meet with workers to discuss the conditions of thousands of tobacco farm employees in North Carolina and other states who harvest the tobacco Reynolds uses to make its products.
As a dominant player in the big tobacco game, Reynolds American wields significant industry clout and can improve working conditions in the fields, but it has not developed the political will to bring about change, says the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC).
Instead, tobacco’s big player continues to rake in billions of dollars every year, while farm workers live in dire poverty on subminimum wages and toil in extremely dangerous working conditions. In fact, conditions for farm workers who harvest tobacco are far more dangerous than many realize.
Legislation & Politics |
Oct 28 |
Retiree Roadrunner Project Showcases Seniors’ Concerns
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As part of the political mobilization by the Alliance for Retired Americans, the Alliance’s Retiree Roadrunner vans are driving around key states to make sure seniors have the facts on what’s at stake this election. Across the country, seniors are stepping up to talk about why it’s important to vote this year. The Alliance has been gathering videos of savvy seniors talking about Social Security, health care, the economy and other critical issues.
Betty Thomas, a retiree from Cincinnati, says that one of her top issues this year is making sure the guarantee of Social Security is kept for today’s seniors and for future generations. She says the current economic crisis shows that privatized accounts are too big a risk for those who are depending on Social Security to survive.
If they start to attack or try to dismantle Social Security, go to private accounts, well, look what’s happening to banks right now….We need to protect our seniors, and we need to help our seniors protect our grandchildren and our children.
Organizing & Bargaining |
May 6 |
Tobacco Workers Demand Safer Workplaces, Better Pay
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Hundreds of members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), religious leaders and community and union supporters from across the nation traveled to Winston-Salem, N.C., where they rallied today outside the Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) shareholders’ meeting.
Carrying displays of mock tobacco leaves and placards depicting life in the tobacco fields, the marchers demanded that RAI CEO Susan Ivey meet with workers to discuss the unsafe and harsh work conditions, something Ivey has refused to do for more than a year. Reynolds American is the parent of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 25 |
Join FLOC in Fighting for Justice for Tobacco Workers
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Thousands of workers who harvest tobacco each year contract green tobacco sickness caused by exposure to harmful chemicals in tobacco leaves. Many of these workers receive little or no medical attention.
The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), which recently won a voice on the job for 8,000 migrant farm workers in North Carolina in a historic labor agreement, now is helping more than 25,000 tobacco harvesters in the Tarheel State to form a union. North Carolina leads the country in tobacco production with an approximate 2006 annual tobacco farm income of $506.2 million.
This weekend, hundreds of working people from Washington, D.C., and cities across the nation will join FLOC members and the North Carolina State AFL-CIO for a rally in Winston-Salem to support the tobacco workers’ fight for a better life.
Organizing & Bargaining |
Oct 5 |
Resurrection Health Care Cited as Major Violator of Workers’ Rights
We reported earlier on the International Trade Union Confederation’s (ITUC’s) annual survey of trade union rights violations, which listed the most dangerous countries for union members. The report also pointed out there is growing government hostility to fundamental workers’ rights in some industrialized countries, including the United States.
In the United States, the report says many employers launch fierce union-busting campaigns to defeat workers’ desire to form a union. It mentions that more than 30 million workers are still denied basic collective bargaining rights by law, including 40 percent of all federal public-sector workers.
