Mt. Olive Pickle agreement ends religious boycott

MOUNT OLIVE, N.C. — The National Council of Churches has applauded an agreement unionizing foreign farmworkers who pick cucumbers sold by the Mt. Olive Pickle Company, which it had boycotted in protest of previous treatment of the workers.

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee, the North Carolina Growers Association and the Mount Olive, N.C.-based pickle company reached an agreement Sept. 16 that permits the workers to join the organizing committee and receive union membership benefits. The company will increase its pay for the crops and give a financial incentive to growers who compensate farmworkers.

“This agreement represents the kind of mutual benefit that we hope will become an example for all of American industry, pointing toward a new era where profits are measured not only in share values, but in human values as well,” said Bob Edgar, general secretary of the New York-based ecumenical body, in a statement. In 2003, the National Council of Churches voted to endorse the consumer boycott that the organizing committee started in 1999. It called the boycott a “measure of last resort.” It joined more than 300 groups in endorsing the boycott.