In 2020, after over a decade of advocacy from farmworkers throughout the South, tobacco giants Reynolds American and Phillip Morris International continue to throw millions of dollars around creating front groups like GAP Connections to hide industry abuses and avoiding engaging with farmworkers to negotiate better conditions.

As the COVID19 crisis expands, both companies continue to allow blacklisting and exploitation on their contract farms. Instead of supporting growers and workers to improve housing and safety to stop the spread of the virus, the companies did nothing for months only to donate a few masks through an industry front group that was recently caught trying to help a Reynolds grower exploit workers.