Mt. Olive supports right of farm workers to have visitors

 For immediate release 7/26/04

Mt. Olive Pickle Company recognizes that farm workers have the right to have visitors in their labor camps.

We are aware that an organizer with the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) and a farm worker advocate with Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) are expected to appear in court August 3. The two were arrested in June by Nash County law officers while they were meeting with farm workers at a Whitakers labor camp. Mt. Olive Pickle Company has no business relationship with the grower in question.

We encourage our contracted cucumber suppliers and their growers not to interfere with visitors in their labor camps, including union organizers, and to avoid the kinds of confrontations that happened in Nash County. We believe open communication is best, and have at times introduced union organizers to some of our suppliers.

Our objection to FLOC’s boycott of our company is based on FLOC's demand that we require independent suppliers and growers to negotiate with the union, and that Mt. Olive participate as a party to the negotiations. We believe union representation is up to workers and their employers to decide, and we will respect those decisions.

We have had no conversations with any of the parties involved in the Nash County case. We trust that the facts of the case will be fully and carefully reviewed, and that any decision will be based on the merit of that information.

-end-

For more information, contact Lynn Williams at 800.672.5041.

Resources:

What We Believe