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date: 27 April 2011

embargo: 00.01hrs Thursday 28 April 2011

Unions raise exploitation of American tobacco workers at BAT London AGM

Union protestors concerned at the poor treatment of migrant tobacco workers in the United States are flying into London today (Thursday) to confront shareholders attending the annual general meeting of British American Tobacco (BAT).

Representatives from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), part of the AFL-CIO - the American equivalent of the TUC - will be at the meeting in the City to urge BAT to get tough with US tobacco giant Reynolds America Inc over the poor wages and working conditions of workers employed in its supply chain.

BAT is one of the world's largest tobacco companies and has a controlling stake in Reynolds, a company whose supply chain US unions accuse of widespread exploitation, including the payment of illegal poverty wages, dangerous working conditions, and sub-standard housing.

To coincide with the meeting, FLOC is releasing A State of Fear, which summarises the chief findings of a soon-to-be published report examining the harsh working and poor housing conditions suffered by tens of thousands of migrant farm workers who tend and harvest tobacco in North Carolina, the leading location for tobacco production in the US.

The report says that the migrant workers are employed under some of the most dangerous working conditions in America and it uncovers evidence of widespread exploitation, in violation of both federal and state law. A State of Fear finds evidence of:

• Poverty wages - farm workers are frequently paid less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, and say their pay is not enough to meet basic needs.
• Poor working conditions - the tobacco workers regularly suffer from green tobacco sickness, a form of acute nicotine poisoning caused by the absorption of excessive amounts of nicotine through the skin. Symptoms include dizziness, vomiting, weakness, coughing, nosebleeds, and headaches.
• Poor health and safety - growers fail to provide the workers with protective clothing, such as gloves, or give them any safety training to enable them to take steps to protect themselves.
• Dangerous working conditions - heat stroke is the leading cause of work-related death among tobacco workers. They are often not given sufficient breaks or clean water, and are pressurised by supervisors to work faster. They are often exposed to pesticides by growers who require them to work in fields too soon after, or even during, spraying.
• A lack of adequate housing - nearly all of the workers live in employer-provided housing and complain of inadequate showers and toilets, overcrowding, leaky roofs, no locks on the accommodation, a lack of heating or ventilation, beds with worn-out mattresses (or no beds at all), infestations of insects and rodents, an absence of laundry facilities, and inadequate cooking facilities.
• Workers being prevented from joining a union - most feel unable to join unions and say that a fear of imprisonment, deportation, being fired, or other retaliation keeps them from speaking out about problems.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'BAT's corporate policies and its code of conduct promise to uphold human rights and the company says its supply chain partners will do the same, yet that promise is being broken every day through the inhumane treatment of tobacco field workers.

'BAT can put a stop to the horrific treatment of these migrant workers, and needs to take its US subsidiary, Reynolds, and the growers to task. I hope today's protest encourages BAT shareholders to find out more about the plight of the American tobacco workforce, and increase the pressure on company directors to eradicate exploitation from every part of the BAT supply chain.'

A State of Fear says that just like BAT, Reynolds America professes to hold its suppliers to high human rights standards. Yet Reynolds has consistently attempted to evade responsibility for enforcing those standards by refusing to enter into dialogue with workers and their union representatives, and by denying any responsibility for the abuses uncovered.

Baldemar Velasquez, President of FLOC and a member of the AFL-CIO's Executive Council, said: 'BAT seems proud of its commitment to human rights yet tobacco workers are paid barely enough to live on, are forced to work in extremely hazardous conditions, frequently get sick and sometimes die in the fields, such is the extent of exploitation in North Carolina.

'I urge BAT to look beyond its paper policies on corporate social responsibility and come with me to North Carolina to witness firsthand the poor working conditions and ill-treatment of thousands of US workers.'

At the London AGM the union protesters are calling on BAT to:

• Back its words of support for human rights principles with action. The company's code of conduct says that it requires its suppliers to 'demonstrate a commitment to universally recognised human rights and freedoms' and weighs suppliers' 'commitment and performance against [their] ability to demonstrate their commitment and performance against these principles...' in evaluating their suitability as potential business partners. Rather than rely solely on information provided by suppliers, BAT should ensure that all companies and contractors in its many supply chains sign up to these principles, check regularly that they are doing so, and exclude any suppliers that refuse to comply.
• As Reynolds' controlling shareholder BAT should accept responsibility for Reynolds' management conduct and take steps to improve the treatment of the thousands of workers employed by the growers who supply the US company, as well as undertaking to learn more about conditions on the tobacco farms in Reynolds' supply chain.
• BAT should make public its list of tobacco suppliers so that conditions can be independently verified and John Daly, BAT's CEO, should accept the invitation of FLOC to go on a tour of the company's tobacco suppliers in the US.

As a lead-up to today's protest at the London AGM, representatives from FLOC demonstrated yesterday (Wednesday) outside the British Embassy in Washington DC and at British consulates across the States including those in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- American union protestors attending the BAT AGM - which takes place at the Mermaid Conference & Events Centre, Puddle Dock, Blackfriars, London EC4V 3DB on Thursday 28 April 2011 at 11.30am - include Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC President, whose members work in the tomato, cucumber, and tobacco industries; Virginia Nesmith, Executive Director of the National Farm Worker Ministry, an organisation composed of leaders from various faith traditions; Penny Schantz, European Officer of the AFL-CIO; Ron Oswald, General Secretary of the International Union of Foodworkers, and Diego Reyes, a tobacco worker from North Carolina. They are all available for interview.

- A State of Fear contains a number of case studies including that of Fernando, 48, who came to the US from Mexico four years ago, hoping for a better life for his family. He has six children and a wife to support. He works as a tobacco harvester, which he considers a dangerous job, not least because of all the chemicals farmers use on their fields. 'I get sick a lot,' said Fernando. 'Coughing blood, nose bleeds, vomiting, and it makes my eyes constantly red.' Fernando says no-one in charge has ever told him about the hazards of working in the tobacco fields. Recently Fernando didn't feel well enough to go to work. He had been battling a cold and a cough made worse by the vapours from the boxes of tobacco he had been working with. 'I could not get up,' he said. But the day after, he dragged himself back to work. 'I have been like this for the whole season,' Fernando said. 'I think that it should be an obligation from the boss to pay our wages even when we are ill. But if I don't go to work, I won't get paid.' The $7.25 an hour Fernando earns isn't enough to allow him to cover major medical expenses and look after his family. 'I have had many accidents,' he said, recounting the time a fall put him in the hospital for two days. 'I got the bill from the regional hospitaI, I paid for the medicines, but I could not pay the hospital bill.' Nor does the pace of the work allow enough time for a full recovery. 'When my arm and hand were caught in the machine the doctor gave me two weeks off work,' said Fernando. 'But the boss only gave me two days off. All the boss is interested about is to work fast. We don't matter to him.'

- A State of Fear is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/tucfiles/14/FLOCreport.pdf

Contacts:

Media enquiries:
Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248 M: 07778 158175 E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (1,500 words) issued 28 Apr 2011