After Three Years, Reynolds Agrees to Meet with Tobacco Workers | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

After Three Years, Reynolds Agrees to Meet with Tobacco Workers by James Parks, May 15, 2011

Tobacco workers march in front of Reynolds American headquarters last week.

In a major turnaround, officials of Reynolds American, who have refused for three years to meet with representatives of tobacco workers, agreed last week to look into the labor practices in their supply chain and work with other parties, including the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to ensure they are not complicit with human rights violations.

More than 50 FLOC members entered theReynolds American shareholders’ meeting last week in Winston-Salem, N.C., to deliver a report on the horrible conditions in the fields. Nearly 100,000 immigrant tobacco workers in North Carolina are paid sub-minimum wages and are exposed to dangerous conditions in the fields.

The FLOC representatives pressed company executives to ensure that this new stance is more than just words and is backed up with serious action, including meeting with farmworkers and their representatives. No date for a meeting has yet been set.

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