Work to change labor policies, Mt. Olive president says Aug. 12, 2004  By Linda Bloom
United Methodist News Service United Methodists should work to institute policies that benefit all farm workers rather than focus on a labor union dispute with a particular company, the president of Mt. Olive Pickle says. Bill Bryan, who is himself a United Methodist, said he disagrees with the 2004 General Conference decision to join the boycott of his company’s products. He pointed out that church members who are closer to the situation – United Methodists in North and South Carolina and United Methodist-related Duke University – have supported Mt. Olive’s position on the boycott. “I think that everyone agrees that farm workers deserve good employment practices and good working conditions,” he told United Methodist News Service in an Aug. 12 interview. Mt. Olive is working to achieve those goals, he said, by providing incentives to farmers and having its suppliers sign a code of conduct and agree to notify the company if they are cited for violations by regulatory agencies. “I do believe that putting additional emphasis on it does help.” Bryan explained that many of his supplying farmers are small operators, without the human resource departments of large corporations. “Most of the farmers are good people who do try to follow the rules and regulations,” he added. The Mt. Olive boycott was started in 1999 by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, because it wants to negotiate improved wages and working conditions for the farm workers who produce the cucumbers that are eventually processed by Mt. Olive. Bryan said Mt. Olive does not think it should be involved in what the company considers to be “union representation” issues between other employers and their employees. He also noted that there are legal and business complications to intervening in collective bargaining issues. “We think that’s a decision best left to those employers,” he said. The National Labor Relations Act — which governs collective bargaining — excludes farm workers, he pointed out, although some states have adopted other legislation for such workers. Instead of a selective boycott, Bryan suggested that the United Methodist Church advocate for policies that cover all farmers and farm workers “in a uniform way to promote good employment practices.” The denomination, he added, “has significant membership and devotes significant resources to advocating for government and legislative action that they think is appropriate.”
*Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom·(646) 369-3759·New York· E-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
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