By Doug Cunningham

The AFL-CIO's Farm Labor Organizing Committee, or FLOC, says the brutal beating death of Mexican organizer Santiago Rafael Cruz was an attack on the union, not a random murder. FLOC spokesman Michael Hale describes what a FLOC supporter found when he got to union's Monterrey, Mexico office to meet with Cruz.

[Hale 1]: "He found the door broken into when he entered the office. He found Santiago tied to a chair and beaten to death. This is a horrible tragedy. It's the first time in the 40 year history of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee that a staff member has been murdered. Nothing was stolen. This is not looking like it was a crime of theft or a random act of violence, but rather a targeted attack on FLOC."

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney condemned Cruz' murder. Sweeney called on the Mexican and U.S. governments to ensure that there is a "thorough and profession al investigation" of the murder.

Ever since the Farm Labor Organizing Committee organized 5,000 H2A visa program immigrant workers in North Carolina in 2004 Cruz had been helping the workers with contract grievances from FLOC's Mexican office. Hale says FLOC has often faced anti-union hostility both in North Carolina and Mexico.

[Hale 2]: "Everything from really disturbing phone calls to various hostility from growers in the south to all kinds of racism in the United States south and a lot of harassment in the Mexico office from labor contractors."

A Santiago tragedy fund has been set up by FLOC. You can go to the Farm labor Organizing Committee's web site to learn how to contribute to the fund.