PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
End Human Rights Abuses in Tobacco Fields
  1. Signatures
    780 out of 1,000
    Petitioning
    1. CEO, Reynolds American (Daniel M. Delen)
  2. Created By
    FARM LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

While concern about tobacco use is often in the news, concern about tobacco farmworkers is not.  Yet sub-minimum wages, corrupt labor contractors, decrepit housing , and serious health risks, including that of death by heat stroke, are common for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina and the South. This is a tragedy and moral disgrace hidden from the eyes of most Americans. At the top of this exploitative labor system sit some of the world's largest and most powerful tobacco companies, such as Reynolds American, Inc. 

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC), which represents thousands of farmworkers in the Midwest and the Southeast, has sought to begin a dialogue with Reynolds American to end the human rights abuses in their supply chain.  But the company has refused to even meet with them

On March 1st, 2011, Daniel M. Delen became the new CEO and President of the company. FLOC calls on Mr. Delen to engage in a dialogue with the farmworkers that toil in his company's supply chain and help find real solutions to the very real problems that face tobacco farmworkers in the Southern U.S. Tell Delen to work with FLOC to end human rights abuses in his company's supply chain. .

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Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Meet with FLOC to discuss farmworker conditions in your supply chain.

Dear Mr. Delen:

I write to urge you to engage with The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC) in order to ensure that your company does not continue to profit from the human rights abuses perpetrated by an exploitative labor system.

In September of 2007, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez wrote to your predecessor, asking for a meeting with representatives of your company to discuss the plight of tobacco farmworkers in the Reynolds supply chain, and repeated that request at the annual shareholder meeting and other venues. For over three and a half years your company has refused to engage in a dialogue with farmworkers to address these very important issues!

While your company does not directly employ any tobacco farmworkers, your position at the top of the tobacco procurement system makes your participation in resolving the serious problems facing the vast majority of tobacco farmworkers vital. As the new President and CEO of Reynolds American, you have the ability to reverse a policy of ignoring these issues and to begin a dialogue with FLOC aimed at ridding your supply chain of serious human rights violations, including sub-minimum wages, corrupt crew leaders, extreme poverty, unregulated labor camps, serious daily health risks, and heat stroke deaths.

I urge you to respond to the most recent letter from FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez to you dated February 1, 2011 and meet with FLOC to discuss how you can work together to ensure that tobacco farmworkers in your supply chain are treated with dignity and respect.

[Your name]

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