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United Methodist decision to join boycott is narrowly won
For
Immediate Release 5/11/04
In a close vote, and in
the waning hours of 10 days of action, the General Conference of
the United Methodist Church May 7 endorsed a boycott of Mt. Olive
Pickle Company products.
The United Methodist
boycott action passed with just 53 percent of the vote, with 446
votes for the boycott and 391 votes against. The General
Conference, which is the United Methodist Church’s governing body,
meets once every four years. It convened April 26-May 7 in
Pittsburgh.
“We are already hearing
from United Methodists who intend to buy more of our products,”
said Lynn Williams, company spokesperson. “We are grateful to the
many United Methodists at General Conference who did work on our
behalf. In particular, we had strong support from the North
Carolina Conference.”
The boycott was called
in 1999 by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) a Toledo,
OH-based labor union, in its efforts to organize the migrant farm
workers who are employees of independent North Carolina farmers.
Discussion on this
issue, as well as a handful of others as the General Conference
neared completion late Friday evening, was limited to one speaker
for and one speaker against the motion, with one minute each to
speak.
“Given the very limited
debate that occurred on the floor, we were pleased that the vote
was so close,” Mrs. Williams said. “We believe many at General
Conference, going into that final plenary session, had heard our
message about the flawed nature of this boycott.”
She noted that Mt.
Olive has taken a number of steps to address farm worker concerns,
including:
-
a code of conduct for
its cucumber suppliers
-
education and
incentives to encourage good farm employment practices among
suppliers
-
partnerships with the
N.C. Conference of the United Methodist Church and
Methodist-affiliated Duke University, among others, to address
specific farm worker concerns in North Carolina.
FLOC called the boycott
in hopes of pressuring Mt. Olive Pickle to require North Carolina
farmers to negotiate and sign union representation contracts with
their employees, and to have Mt. Olive participate as a party to
those negotiations. Mt. Olive believes union representation
decisions should be up to workers and their employers.
--end--
Other resources:
For more information, contact
Lynn Williams
at 800.672.5041.
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