Urbano Ramirez lay under a tree, slowly dying in the oppressive heat of a North Carolina summer. Smuggled across the U.S.-Mexican borders by "coyotes," to whom he owed thousands of dollars for safe passage, Ramirez was essentially an indentured servant toiling long hours picking cucumbers.

When he was overcome by the heat, the farm boss ignored his condition and told him to lie down under a tree. Not realizing where he was, his co-workers returned to their housing camp without him. His shriveled body was finally found, two weeks later.

"He was left under that tree to die like a dog," said Baldemar Velasquez, founder and president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). "The old spirit of slavery and indentured servants is still alive and well . . .

"You don't know these people," Velasquez said of migrant workers. "They work in the shadow of American life."

To bring them out of the shadows, FLOC is organizing workers to improve their living and working conditions. And it is advocating changes in U.S. immigration policies to restore dignity for all workers. Velasquez carried that message to the University of Minnesota Friday (April 8) and to gatherings to support Centro Campesino, an immigrant workers' organization based in Owatonna, Minn.

Last year, three years after Ramirez died, his family was awarded $110,000 in a lawsuit charging negligence by his employer, Jake Taylor Farms. The North Carolina Department of Labor fined the company a paltry $1,850 for violations of health and safety standards that led to the death. In the fields where Ramirez labored, there were no adequate first aid facilities, beer was sold to workers instead of providing water in individual cups, and sanitary toilets or handwashing facilities were lacking.

Almost always, these cases of death, injury, abuse and discrimination go unrecognized, Velasquez said. "These tragedies happen from Florida to Minnesota, from California to New Jersey."

Baldemar Velasquez addressed a group at the University of Minnesota Friday. Photo by Mike Heffron

Focusing on the giant agribusiness corporations that benefit from the migrant labor system, FLOC ? headquartered in Toledo, Ohio ? has won several high-profile campaigns to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for migrants. Last year, after a five-year struggle, it reached a precedent-setting agreement with the North Carolina Grower's Association and the Mount Olive Pickle Company.

More than 8,000 "guest" farm workers in North Carolina will become the first such workers in the history of the United States to win union representation and a contract. It is the largest union contract in North Carolina history. FLOC also won an "accretion" agreement that requires management to remain neutral during union organizing drives at plants in several other states.

Through a new office in Monterrey, Mexico, the union is overseeing the employment Mexican workers who will come to work in North Carolina with H2A visas through the U.S. Department of Labor. And Mt. Olive agreed to become a "fair trade" product, opening the door to unionization of the company's other operations in Mexico, Honduras, India and Sri Lanka, Velasquez said.

While organizing is significant, the problems of undocumented workers cannot be fully addressed without changes in immigration law, the FLOC leader noted in his talk at the University of Minnesota. Reform must allow a freer flow of workers across borders, with access to work visas, so that they cannot be exploited, he said.

To promote that goal, FLOC, Centro Campesino and other organizations will hold a national Day of Action for Immigrant Rights in Washington, D.C., on April 27. People from across the country will lobby their members of Congress. Centro Campesino is sponsoring a bus from Minnesota; call 507-446-9599 for more information.

A chaplain to farm workers in addition to being an organizer, Velasquez often cites Biblical teachings to support the morality of treating all workers with dignity.

"Jesus taught us the most about solidarity," he said. "The Scripture is my best organizing manual."

For more information
Visit the FLOC website, www.floc.com
Visit the Workday Minnesota special section, Immigrant workers