RESOLUTION                                                   84-11

SUPPORT OF THE FARM LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE (FLOC) CAMPBELLS’S BOYCOTT

WHEREAS farm-workers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana pick tomatoes which feed citizens of the United States and other countries, and

WHEREAS farm-workers endure poor living and working conditions, accounting for 49-year life expectancy, a 125% higher infant mortality rate and a 300% higher on-the-job accident rate than the average U. S. citizen¹, and

WHEREAS the canneries by tomatoes and determine planting, spraying and harvesting policies and thereby control the livelihood of farm-workers, and

WHEREAS 2,000 farm-workers, members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), have been on strike since 1978 in those fields contracted to the Campbell Soup Company, and

WHEREAS Campbell’s has refused FLOC’s demands for union recognition and three-way negotiations between farm-workers, farmers and the canneries to resolve wage and working conditions issues², and

WHEREAS FLOC has initiated a boycott of all Campbell’s products to pressure the canneries to negotiate,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT the Lutheran Student Movement-USA support the organizing efforts of FLOC in their struggle to obtain collective bargaining agreements, and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Lutheran Student Movement-USA support the consumer boycott of Campbell’s products as a means by which farm-workers can gain basic rights, and

BE IT FURTER RESOLVED THAT Lutheran Student Movement-USA urge other organizations and its members to actively support FLOC by boycotting, discontinuing the Campbell’s Labels for Educations collection in schools and through fundraising, and

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED THAT this resolution shall remain in effect until the FLOC calls of the boycott.

Submitted by:  Gretchen Caldwell, U of Virginia

Endorsed by:  Kelly Kluttz, Virginia Tech                      Alice Gross, North Carolina State U

                        Julie Bergdahl, U. of Virginia                 Dave Buechner, Georgia Tech

                        Kristin Berkey, Newberry

FOOTNOTES:  1.  The Christian Service Response, “The Campbell Question”, January 1984 Archdiocese of Detroit

2.  Newsletter of National Chicanos on Higher Education, Austin, Texas    #18, March 1984

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Summary:  Those who harvest the food we eat are living in conditions unacceptable to caring Christians.  LSM-USA can support their efforts to achieve hum dignity by participating in the boycott of Campbell’s products, and by supporting the efforts of FLOC.