The Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) is a labor union representing migrant farm workers in the Midwestern United States and North Carolina. History FLOC was founded in Toledo, Ohio, in 1967 by Baldemar Velasquez. A migrant worker who had worked in the fields since he was six years old, Velasquez led his first strike at the age of 12. By the time he was 20 years old and a college student, Velasquez had already faced numerous beatings and arrests. But in 1967, with the help of his father and others, Velasquez organized FLOC among migrant field workers picking tomatoes in Ohio. FLOC's initial organizing strategy was to focus on workers, as most unions did. FLOC organizers followed migrant workers year-round, moving south to Texas and Florida every winter to build an organizing base. By 1977, however, FLOC had only 700 members. Campbell's Soup boycott In 1978, Velasquez decided to adopt a new organizing strategy. The union believed that Ohio tomato growers would be unable to recruit enough workers to see them through a long strike. So that year 2,000 FLOC members walked off their jobs in Ohio. While some growers were willing to negotiate, big canners such as the Campbell Soup Company were unwilling to pay the higher prices which would accompany a unionized workforce. FLOC initiated a boycott of Campbell's. Six years later, not much had changed even though FLOC had conducted a well-publicized 560-mile march from Toledo to Campbell Soup headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, in 1983. Even the support of the National Council of Churches and a group of Catholic bishops in Ohio failed to sway the company. In 1984, FLOC asked labor organizer and consultant Ray Rogers for help. Rogers developed a corporate campaign strategy which included a resolution and well-publicized demonstration at a Campbell Soup shareholder meeting. " 'You had these little nuns get up at stockholders' meetings saying I have one share and you're a dirty so and so,' says John Dunlop, secretary of labor in the Ford administration, who was involved in the FLOC battle." The company's public image began to suffer. FLOC then targeted three members of Campbell's board of directors for economic pressure. FLOC also picketed Philadelphia National Bank, one of Campbell's major creditors. Shortly thereafter, depositors threatened to pull $500,000 out of the bank. In 1985, Campbell's agreed to establish a commission to implement an anti-poverty program among its workers.