From Forward Kentucky: Union wins tobacco strike, continues VUSE e-cigarette boycott
EDITOR'S NOTE: Click here to read about the strike victory when it happened.
By BERRY CRAIG
Last fall, seven Mexican migrants won what was evidently the first-ever tobacco workers strike in Kentucky, a state long synonymous with “brown gold.”
With Stephen Bartlett and the Farm Laborers Organizing Committee in their corner, the H2A guest workers collected $20,000 in back wages and attorney’s fees from a Garrard County farmer. They joined the union, to boot.
“But they were not invited back this year,” said Bartlett, FLOC Kentucky field organizer. “That’s a great defect of the H2A program. The workers are dependent on farmers inviting them back, unless they are under a contract with FLOC.”
The Louisville-based Bartlett is still trying to sign up workers for FLOC, an AFL-CIO-affiliate. At the same time, he’s urging Kentuckians not to buy VUSE electronic cigarettes.