Vuse is boycott target

A farmworker labor group often at odds with Reynolds American Inc. voted unanimously on Saturday to conduct a national boycott of the company’s Vuse, the US’ top-selling electronic cigarette, according to a story by Richard Craver for the Winston-Salem Journal.

As of August, Vuse, which is sold at more than 111,000 US retail outlets, had a top market share of 29.8 percent.

Catherine Crowe, a spokeswoman for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee of FLOC, said the potential boycott of Vuse was designed to dent Reynolds’ revenue stream since “it is a fairly new product and market for Reynolds”.

“Reynolds has still not signed an agreement with FLOC that would affect real change on the ground by guaranteeing farmworkers freedom of association and implementing a grievance mechanism that farmworkers could use to resolve issues without fear of retaliation,” Crowe said.

Since 2007, FLOC has conducted occasional adversarial inquiries during the question-and-answer session of Reynolds’ annual shareholders meeting as well as peaceful street protests following the meeting.

The group was not able to protest in May because Reynolds did not conduct a shareholders meeting. At that time, British American Tobacco was in the process of buying Reynolds.

Reynolds said it had no comment on FLOC’s boycott discussion.

Craver’s story is at: http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/farmworker-labor-group-votes-to-boycott-vuse/article_83223678-26e5-5473-afe1-7353a2bed47c.html.