Baldemar Velásquez | |
|---|---|
 Melvin Rios and Baldemar Velasquez at the Columbus, Ohio, Rally for Immigrants Rights on 2006-03-26. | |
| Born | (1947-02-15)February 15, 1947 (age 79) |
| Occupation | Labor leader |
| Known for | President,Farm Labor Organizing Committee |
Baldemar Velásquez (born February 15, 1947)[1] is an Americanlabor unionactivist. He co-founded and is president of theFarm Labor Organizing Committee,AFL-CIO. He was named aMacArthur Fellow (also known as the "Genius Grant") in 1989, and awarded theOrder of the Aztec Eagle in 1994, the highest honor Mexico can bestow on a non-citizen.[2]
Velásquez was born in February 1947 inPharr, Texas.[3] He was the third of nine children born to Cresencio and Vicenta Castillo Velásquez.[1][4][5] Baldemar's father was born into aMexican-American family inDriscoll, Texas.[4] His grandfather died when Cresencio was just 11 years old, forcing the young Cresencio to seek employment as a migrant worker.[4] Baldemar's maternal grandparents fled to Pharr in 1910 after theMexican Revolution, and his mother, Vicenta, was born there in 1920.[4][5] His parents worked as migrant farm produce pickers inIndiana,Michigan,Ohio, andTexas.[5] Baldemar Velásquez later said that his parents instilled in him a strongwork ethic and a passion forsocial justice linked to theChristian faith.[3][4]
Velásquez began assisting his parents in the fields when he was four years old.[4] His family traveled from theSouthwest toMidwest each year, following the harvest season for various crops.[6] They rode with other migrant workers in apickup truck with a canvas-coveredbed, huddling around a can of hot ashes and covering themselves in blankets to stay warm.[4] Often, the family would have only a single room for the parents and all their children.[4] One winter, he and his siblings had gathered together for warmth while snow drifted into their one-room shack through gaps in the walls.[7] The family's poverty worsened one year when an employer paid his father only half the wages he was owed.[7] In 1954, his parents settled permanently inGilboa, Ohio, where they worked in the fields in the summer and in acannery during the winter.[4][6] Baldemar knew almost noEnglish when he entered the first grade, and struggled academically.[4] He was a good athlete, playing several sports, but was often ridiculed for his Mexican American heritage.[8] Velásquez led his first strike at the age of 12, helping pickers at his summer job win better wages.[9] He began to excel in his studies in the eighth grade, makinghonor roll.[10] He attendedPandora-Gilboa High School, where he participated inbaseball,basketball,football, andtrack and field, and tookcollege preparatory courses.[10] Hishigh schoolcareer guidance counselor advised him to only focus onindustrial arts courses, but Velásquez refused.[10]
A high school English teacher convinced him to go to college. He enrolled atPan American University inEdinburg, Texas, in 1965, intending to major inengineering.[10] Living in south Texas made him curious about his roots there, and he enrolled in a Texas history which, he said, opened his eyes to the exploitation of Mexican Americans andfarmworkers.[10] A localRoman Catholic priest assisted him in obtainingfinancial aid, and he transferred toOhio Northern College (a private,United Methodist Church-affiliated school) in 1966.[10] He transferred toBluffton College (a private,Mennonite-affiliated school) a year later.[10] He graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree in sociology in 1969.[1][10]
While at Bluffton College, he was mentored by Dr. Lawrence Templin, a notedpacifist who had been imprisoned for his beliefs and was now a professor ofEnglish literature. Templin had grown up inIndia as the son of Christian missionaries who knewMahatma Gandhi personally.[11] Templin's teachings deeply influence Velásquez's approach to securing social justice for farmworkers.[10] Templin knewBayard Rustin while in prison,[12] and Templin encouraged him to volunteer with theCongress of Racial Equality (CORE)—a civil rights organization in which Rustin played a major role. Baldemar Velásquez spent several weeks in the summer of 1968 working with CORE and living with anAfrican American family inCleveland, Ohio.[10][13] After graduation, he spent time picking cherries in Michigan to pay off his student loans, and went toWisconsin to meet with the founder ofObreros Unidos,Jesus Salas (also known as "Jesse Salas").[6][10]
His association with Templin changed his life in another way as well: Baldemar Velásquez married Templin's daughter, Sara Templin, on June 11, 1969.[1] The couple had four children together.[1]
FLOC was founded in September 1967 by Baldemar Velásquez and his father.[6][13][14] Velásquez had been deeply influenced by the ideas of Gandhi,César Chávez andMartin Luther King Jr.[13] Initially, his goal was merely to organize the farmworkers so that they could cooperate with the growers to improve pay, housing, and education for the pickers.[6][7] Sensing that the farmworkers would not take a 20-year-old student seriously, Velásquez relied on his father to gather the employees and get them to listen to him.[10] He even sent volunteer organizers to Texas during the winter to talk to and organize the workers during their months away from work.[15] But the effort largely failed, and in September 1968 Velásquez called a strike against 10 tomato growers in Ohio.[15][16] Five growers signed contracts recognizing the union, agreeing to a minimum wage and limited health insurance, and promising not to discriminate against union members or union organizers.[15] Within a few weeks, 21 other growers had agreed to contracts with FLOC as well.[15][17] But in the following year, sustained anti-union opposition from the growers (backed by theAmerican Farm Bureau Federation), the withdrawal of some growers from the tomato market, the refusal of some growers to honor their contracts, and the efforts of some growers to raise wages and improve working conditions (which led employees to abandon the union) caused Velásquez to rethink his organizing strategy.[15][17]
In the 1970s, Velásquez began focusing on national and international companies in addition to local growers. "It was a big mistake to go after individual farmers," he said, "instead of focusing on the large corporations. We spent a lot of years doing that, and it was a mistake."[18] From 1970 to 1983, Velasquez implemented a long-term strategy to build public support for the farmworkers, publicizing the discrimination, low wages, and often appalling working conditions they faced.[15][19] In 1976, workers at a tomato cannery inWarren, Indiana, struck over the employer's tactic of overrecruiting workers in order to force down wages.[20] The workers spontaneously barricaded themselves inside the cannery, refusing to allow the perishable crop inside until their grievances had been addressed.[20] The workers asked FLOC to intervene. A federal district court issued aninjunction requiring that the workers vacate the premises, but they refused.[19] Although nearly all the workers were arrested, there was extensive publicity about the strike, the employer's overrecruitment tactic, the low wages and unsanitary conditions the workers suffered, and the use of theImmigration and Naturalization Service to intimidate workers and avoid paying them (through deportation proceedings).[19] Velásquez later said the tomato cannery strike helped improve FLOC's negotiating and worker mobilization skills and provided a trial run for the union's dealings with large corporations.[21]
Velásquez decided that the union's first target should be theCampbell Soup Company. The goal was three-way bargaining: The produce buyer (Campbell's) would pay slightly more for produce, which would allow growers to pay farmworkers much higher wages.[22] Velásquez asked migrant workers in 1978 to strike growers with contracts with Campbell's, and 2,000 farm workers walked off the job.[23] Velásquez required that all strikers be trained in nonviolent protest techniques, and he worked closely with local churches and religious groups so that large numbers of clergy and nuns were present (which inhibited violence).[24] Campbell's denied any involvement in the strike (claiming the union's dispute was with the growers and not the soup company), and Velásquez announced a boycott in 1979.[23] In August 1983, Velasquez led migrant workers on a 560-mile (900 km) protest march from the union headquarters inToledo, Ohio, to Campbell's headquarters inCamden, New Jersey.[23] Four months later, he took out advertisements in newspapers denouncing the conditions in the fields, and Campbell's responded with ads promoting its labor practices.[23] Campbell's said the strike and boycott was having no effect on the company, and theUnited Food and Commercial Workers andAFL-CIO opposed FLOC's boycott out of concern that it would harm union members working for Campbell's.[23][25][26] At the1984 Democratic National Convention, Velásquez strategically positioned farmworkers in the audience with signs reading "Boycott Campbell's." Cameras focused on the signs during aprime time speech by Democratic presidential candidate Rev.Jesse Jackson, which raised the profile of the boycott (but otherwise seemed to have little effect).[25] Velásquez also encouraged stockholders to sell their company shares, and for schools and parents to not participate in the company's program which donated money to local schools in exchange for product purchases.[25] On the advice ofRay Rogers, acomprehensive campaign expert, Velásquez agreed to raise the financial pressure on Campbell. A shareholder resolution to recognize FLOC was introduced at the 1984 company stockholder meeting, but it was easily defeated (27.3 million shares to 263,906 shares).[26] Velásquez and about 200 FLOC members picketed the shareholder meeting, which was held under heavy security.[26] Velásquez also put pressure on directors ofPrudential Insurance Company,Equitable Life Assurance Society, andPhiladelphia National Bank, many of whom also were directors of Campbell's, to resign from the Cambell's board or face a stockholder campaign as well.[26] After two years of the widened financial campaign, Campbell agreed to the nation's first three-way collective bargaining agreement on February 23, 1986.[27] Although it only covered 600 workers at 16 tomato growers in Ohio and 12 cucumber growers in Michigan, an additional 71 growers agreed to hold union organizing elections in the summer of 1986.[27]
Velásquez soon signed agreements withAunt Jane Foods,Dean Foods,Green Bay Foods,H. J. Heinz Company, andVlasic Pickles.[15] A few years later, the growers began complaining that they could not compete with inexpensive Mexican produce. Velásquez personally traveled toMexico, successfully lobbied the Mexican unions to raise their wages and benefits, and closed the price differential.[9]
FLOC also began organizing cucumber pickers and pickle processing workers in North Carolina in the early 1990s. Velásquez decided to target theMount Olive Pickle Company, the major pickle processor in the state.[28] Once more, Velásquez decided on a boycott when initial attempts to secure a three-way collective bargaining contract failed.[29] Velásquez personally led a four-day, 70-mile (110 km) march fromMount Olive, North Carolina, toRaleigh.[30] On September 16, 2004, FLOC signed a collective bargaining agreement with Mount Olive and the growers which covered more than 8,500 of the state's 10,000guest workers.[9][31] It was the first union contract for farmworkers in the state, and the first to establish a unionhiring hall in Mexico to supply the state with guest workers.[31]
In 2010, Velásquez led FLOC in joining with theUnited Auto Workers in announcing a boycott ofJPMorgan Chase to protest the banking concern's efforts to begin extensiveforeclosure proceedings against homeowners nationwide.[32][33] The same year, he was one of only 15 individuals appointed to a committee of theInternational Labour Organization to create global working condition standards for farmworkers.[32]
In 1990, Velásquez obtained a degree inpractical theology fromFlorida International Seminary.[34][35] He was later ordained a chaplain by Florida-based Rapha Ministries.[34]
Velásquez has served on the board of directors of a number of different organizations. He helped organize the National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991,[34] and in 2006 served on the board of directors of Agricultural Missions, a nonprofit corporate arm of theNational Council of Churches.[36] As of 2010 serves on the board ofPolicy Matters Ohio,[34] theUniversity of Toledo,[37] and theToledo Zoo.[38] In November 2010,Ohio GovernorTed Strickland appointed him to the Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs, a state panel which analyzes the problems of and provides information about programs affecting Spanish-speaking people in that state.[34]
Velásquez has received numerous honors. He received an inauguralBannerman Fellowships in 1988 for helping organize people for racial, social, economic, andenvironmental justice.[39] He was named aMacArthur Fellow (the so-called "Genius Grant") the following year by theJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.[2][13][40] In 1994, theNational Council of La Raza bestowed on him theHispanic Heritage Leadership Award.[13][34] That same year he also received Mexico'sAguila Azteca Award—the highest award Mexico can give a non-citizen.[2][13][41]
Velásquez has also received honoraryDoctor of Humane Letters degrees fromBowling Green State University in 1996,[2] Bluffton College in 1998,[2] and the University of Toledo in 1998.[34]
| Trade union offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Founding President | President,Farm Labor Organizing Committee 1967 - Present | Succeeded by Incumbent |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
