Baldemar Velasquez, founder and current president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), AFL-CIO, will appear at Berea College on Thursday, Nov. 29. At 3 p.m., he will deliver the William J. Hutchins Lecture, and at 8 p.m., will perform with the Aquila Negra Band. Both events are scheduled in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

Velasquez, who began working in farm fields at age 6, gained national attention in 1967 when he organized farm labor in northwest Ohio where many jobs had previously been unpaid. In 1979, FLOC was formally recognized as a labor union of farm workers in the Midwest.

Velasquez organized the FLOC strike against Campbell's Soup that began in 1978 and lasted eight years. During that time, he advocated a boycott of Campbell's products and led a march from the tomato and pickle fields of Ohio to the company's headquarters in Camden, N.J. When the strike ended, Midwest farm workers had won historic collective bargaining agreements.

Velasquez is also to perform Nov. 29

Since then, Velasquez has continued to work on winning rights and improving conditions for migrant and seasonal farm workers, leading efforts which have resulted in labor agreements with several additional agri-businesses and their growers. In 1994, FLOC was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO. More than 8,000 workers are now represented by FLOC under union contracts.

For additional information, visit the FLOC website at www.iupui.edu/~floc/.

Also a guitarist and singer, Velasquez has recorded Mexican folk songs combined with songs from the FLOC movement of the past 33 years. Thursday evening's program with the Aguila Negra Band will be a mix of folk songs, labor protest and picket line songs.

In recognition of his 40 years as a leader for social justice, Velasquez has received several awards. In 1989, he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, and in 1994, he received the Aguila Azteca Award, the highest honor the Mexican government awards to a noncitizen.

A graduate of Bluffton College, where he earned a degree in sociology, Velasquez has been awarded honorary degrees from Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo.

The events are sponsored by CELTS (Center for Excellence in Learning Through Service).