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MP Jim Sheridan joined a fact-finding team investigating the plight of the workers picking tobacco for the cigarettes sold in Britain and around the world.

Boys as young as 13 and women up to the age of 60 work on the North Carolina tobacco farms without water or protective clothing while women are forced to offer bosses sex for shifts.

Their squalid living conditions and human rights abuses were witnessed first-hand by Sheridan, who flew out to the US state to investigate.

He visited five farms which supply multimillion-pound tobacco companies to expose the poor conditions endured by workers picking leaves.

The Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North said: “What I saw was quite horrific. It was like living in the times of the slave trade.

“The farm workers’ job is to pick the tobacco leaves but they’re not given any gloves, masks or protective clothing and, as a result of that, they’re inhaling the dangerous chemicals that come off the tobacco leaves and pesticides that often cause them to become really ill with nausea and vomiting.

“There are fears that the chemicals can cause fertility problems in women.

“There’s also a huge problem with sexual exploitation of women. If they don’t sleep with the boss, then they don’t get any work. It’s just outrageous.

“The workers are absolutely terrified. They’re too scared to speak out.

“At one of the farms we visited, only one worker would speak to us. The others hid out in the field because they don’t want to be seen speaking to us in case they lose their job.”

When the labourers finish for the day, they cram into small caravans measuring around 12ft by 6ft, where they eat from a single ring stove and sleep on dirty beds.

Sheridan said: “These caravans have beds and a stove for six people. The beds are filthy and infested with bugs and there’s nowhere to do any washing.

“The workers are left working and sleeping in the same contaminated clothes every day.

“Then, when you look at the toilets, there was a shower but I don’t know if you could call it that – there was a trickle of water coming out and that was it. The smell was awful and there were flies everywhere.

“There’s no privacy. It’s inhumane, especially when you live in a country like America. Alot of these workers are from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.

“They come from these Central American countries and they go to America to get work to give their families back home a better life. Meanwhile, they’re being treated like this.

“These tobacco fields are well off the beaten track, so people don’t see what’s going on.”

Some women workers claimed that some supervisors expected sex for putting them on well-paid shifts.

Gloria, 23, said: “Women with children have it harder. We have no support.

“If you go out with the contractor, in every way you get treated better. If you go out with him, you’ll get a lot of hours in the good jobs.

“If you don’t, your pay will suffer. We have to take care of our children, so we do what he wants.

“All I ask is that women get treated equally as men in the fields.”

Sheridan was invited to visit the farms, along with Ian Lavery MP, by American

farm workers’ union the Farm Labour Organising Committee (FLOC). They have been campaigning for better rights for farm workers for seven years.

But neither Reynolds American nor BAT, who provide leaves for the tobacco that goes into cigarettes such as Marlboro and Regal, are willing to sign an agreement that will mean workers on their tobacco farms are given better working conditions.

Sheridan, who has conducted a report on his findings for the UK Labour Party, said: “We’re trying to get a freedom of association agreement with RJ Reynolds. They’re 42 per cent owned by the British American Tobacco company, which is based in this country and making an awful lot of money off the backs of these people.

“But they’re fighting fiercely to stop any representation, any collective bargain of any sorts for the workers.

“So not only are people dying from these products but the people who produce this tobacco are being killed by the chemicals and the conditions they’re working in.

(Image: Getty)

“It’s very sinister. There is absolutely no need for these workers to be treated like this and their conditions must improve.”

“RJ Reynolds can enter into an agreement with FLOC to improve the conditions without it costing any great amount of money.

“They’re probably paying lawyers more money in the courts to stop the workers

getting better conditions than just giving the money they’re spending on that and letting people get on with what they’re doing in a clean, safe and healthy working environment.”

Sheridan added: “As UK citizens, we should be appalled that UK companies will accept such horrific human rights abuses within their supply chains.

“British American Tobacco, through their name, represent us all, whether we like it or not. They should be accountable to our ideals of fairness and justice, whether it be in the UK or abroad.”

Justin Florence, vice president of FLOC, said: “Reynolds American is the largest tobacco company in North Carolina.

“For seven years, we have been calling on them to take the lead and sign this agreement to guarantee better conditions for tobacco farmers but this has been unsuccessful to date.

“We have submitted proposals to Reynolds American and British American Tobacco and they have yet to respond.

“We will continue our campaign to educate the world on what’s going on here

in North Carolina until some changes are made to the low wages and poor working conditions.”

A British American Tobacco spokesperson said:



"British American Tobacco has a long and proud history in agriculture, working directly with farmers around the world and advancing agricultural best practice. We respect and support the UN Declaration of Human Rights which includes the Freedom of Association.



"Our Social Responsibility in Tobacco Production (SRTP) programme sets out the requirements we expect of our tobacco leaf suppliers, including those in the US, the details of which are available on our website for all to see. As such, we take any allegations of poor working conditions within our supply chain very seriously.



"Given the rigorous process our SRTP programme involves for our suppliers, we believe the issues referenced in the recent MP report are unlikely to occur on the farms where the tobacco we buy from RJ Reynolds is grown. We have asked the report's authors and their US hosts, the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), for proof that these issues are taking place at the farms in our supply chain, but they have yet to present any evidence to us.



"It is important to remember that, while we are a large shareholder of RJ Reynolds Tobacco, we do not control the company and we must allow RJ Reynolds own board to make all policy decisions in relation to its affairs. In addition, many of the issues raised in the MP's report and by FLOC specifically relate to US law and we believe they are best resolved through continued discussion and negotiation among all relevant parties in the US."