Human Rights With Your Food: Farm Workers March in Florida for Living Wages

[one...two...tree 2,762]

By Andrew Stelzer, IPS News

Chanting "No more slaves! Pay a living wage!", hundreds of farmworkers, students and others marched 22 miles through central Florida for three days, calling on the Publix supermarket chain to pay an extra penny to the impoverished workers who pick their tomatoes.

The three-day long march was organised by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a collective of Mexican, Guatemalan and Haitian migrants based in the small south Florida town of Immokalee. The procession passed through the cities of Tampa and Plant City, and then culminated with a rally in Lakeland, where Publix corporate headquarters is located.

The farmworkers are calling on Publix to pay them a penny more for every pound of tomatoes they pick, which would almost double their meager wages. They also want Publix to sign onto a code of conduct, co-written by the workers themselves, which would prevent the supermarket chain from buying tomatoes from any growers that did not meet certain basic working conditions.

"We get paid 45 cents for picking a bucket of tomatoes," says farmworker Wilson Perez.

The workers have to pick about 4,000 lbs of tomatoes per day (1,818 kg) to earn more than 50 dollars a day, a pay rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980, accounting for inflation.

Farmworkers in the U.S. are also exempt from many employee protections - they have no right to overtime pay and cannot organise unions.

"We are asking for real social responsibility from Publix Corporation," said CIW co-founder Lucas Benitez, at the kick-off of the march. "Publix says they support families. So why don't they support our families?"

Since 2001, the CIW has waged successful campaigns against fast food chains, food service providers, and now supermarkets - always calling for the same penny per pound raise and binding code of conduct agreement.

Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell and several other chains, was the first to agree to the CIW's demands in 2005; they were followed by McDonalds, Burger King, and Subway. More recently, pressure from college students allied with the CIW led to agreements with food service providers Aramark, Bon Appetit and Compass. Health-oriented supermarket company Whole Foods also signed on in 2008.

Farmworker and CIW organiser Gerardo Reyes Chavez says the goal of the "Campaign for Fair Food" is to make U.S. citizens more aware of where their food comes from. "This movement, it's aiming not just to change the mentality of Publix, but it's aiming to change first and foremost the mentality of the consumers so that we can achieve greater changes."

The "Farmworker Freedom March" featured a box-truck turned into a traveling exhibit about farmworkers being beaten, and even kept captive as slaves in the modern agricultural industry, an extreme example of the lack of rights afforded to the mostly immigrant workforce in Florida who provide about half of the tomatoes for the entire United States.

"The workers are being exploited and it's not just," said Natalia Margolis, a college student who came from Washington DC for the march.

Margolis learned about the CIW from a group at her school called the Georgetown Solidarity Committee. Support from college students has been key to the CIW's campaigns throughout the past decade. Most significantly, students kicked more than 20 Taco Bell outlets off college campus as part of a four-year boycott which began in 2001.

"Since a lot of these corporations are targeting students as their audience, or who they are advertising to, I think students have a lot of power," said Margolis.

The CIW has also written letters to several other supermarket chains with the same demands. Publix would be the first mainstream supermarket to sign on with the CIW, which Chavez says would be an opportunity for Publix to "set an example for other corporations in the world of the supermarket industry".

The CIW's campaigns are based on the notion that companies that buy the tomatoes have a responsibility to make sure everyone in their supply chain is paid fairly. So far, Publix has responded by claiming that wages are determined by the growing operations, not by the supermarket. And Publix spokesperson Shannon Patten says she's satisfied the growers who supply Publix all pay minimum wage.

"This is a labour dispute between the supplier and their employees. It's not something that Publix is involved in, and it's not something that we're going to get involved in," she told IPS.

Publix, which has more than 1,000 supermarkets in the Southeast U.S., brought in 24 billion in revenue last year and made a profit of over a billion dollars.

"They are trying to escape responsibility," the CIW's Chavez responds. But he's confident the farmworkers will prevail and Publix will grant their demands.

"It's just a question of time. We are going to continue pressure," he said. "We know what we deserve…We are entitled to a decent way of living, we are entitled to our human rights."

link

[peejay 327]

Chanting "No more slaves! Pay a living wage!"...

This is what happens when illegal aliens by the millions are allowed to invade the USA en mass. The unscrupulous hire them just for that reason. It's a spiral to the toilet with wages and working conditions.

However...the usual open border zealots and illegal alien cheerleaders still continue to ignore the obvious. You get what you get when you flood any country with cheap and uncontrolled labor supply.

And no...continuing to amnesty millions of illegal aliens and further flood the US jobs market is not the solution either. Immigration (legal or illegal) should not be allowed to harm American workers. The first priority in any immigration policy should be the effect on American citizens.

Edited April 24, 2010 by peejay

[lostinblue 1,989]

This is what happens when illegal aliens by the millions are allowed to invade the USA en mass. The unscrupulous hire them just for that reason. It's a spiral to the toilet with wages and working conditions.

However...the usual open border zealots and illegal alien cheerleaders still continue to ignore the obvious. You get what you get when you flood any country with cheap and uncontrolled labor supply.

And no...continuing to amnesty millions of illegal aliens and further flood the US jobs market is not the solution either. Immigration (legal or illegal) should not be allowed to harm American workers. The first priority in any immigration policy should be the effect on American citizens.

Mexico

In the first six months of 2005 alone, more than 120,000 people from Central America have been deported to their countries of origin. This is a significantly higher rate than in 2002, when for the entire year, only 130,000 people were deported [15]. Another important group of people are those of Chinese origin, who pay about $5,500 to smugglers to be taken to Mexico from Hong Kong. It is estimated that 2.4% of rejections for work permits in Mexico correspond to Chinese citizens [16]. Many women from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Central and South America are also offered jobs at table dance establishments in large cities throughout the country causing the National Institute of Migration (INM) in Mexico to raid strip clubs and deport foreigners who work without the proper documentation [17]. In 2004, the INM deported 188,000 people at a cost of $10 million [18]. Illegal immigration of Cubans through Cancún tripled from 2004 to 2006. [19]

In September 2007, Mexican President Calderón harshly criticized the United States government for the crackdown on illegal immigrants, saying it has led to the persecution of immigrant workers without visas. “I have said that Mexico does not stop at its border, that wherever there is a Mexican, there is Mexico,” he said.[75]

In October 2008, Mexico tightened its immigration rules and agreed to deport Cubans using the country as an entry point to the US. It also criticized U.S. policy that generally allows Cubans who reach U.S. territory to stay. Cuban Foreign Minister said the Cuban-Mexican agreement would lead to "the immense majority of Cubans being repatriated."[76]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration

[Ali G. 37]

Steven are you for real? Every chance you get you tell us how awesome illegal aliens are for America because a study or two based on opinion says so. Every time I see it I tell you it destroys American's living standards and suppresses the wage; something you downplay and ignore. Supply and Demand 101.

"No more slaves! Pay a living wage!" is exactly what many of us here have been saying since day one. However, you guys have turned it into anti-immigration and a race issue. In reality you have been enabling the slave drivers that exploit both these people and Americans. A job for an illegal alien means one job less for Americans. The more poor people enter illegally, the less these slave drivers pay and the worse their conditions get. If one dares complain, they are fired and replaced with another waiting to take their place. Whereas, in countries like Australia, there are few left to take their place; thus, the necessity to pay a decent wage. Not to mention, Australian unions have come down hard on anyone who employs illegal aliens. Also explains why blue collar workers earn well over $30 an hour there.

Edited April 24, 2010 by Ali G.

[Ali G. 37]

You want to know what works? Have a read of this. pay attention to the charge and fine. Do you think any other farmer will hire them again?

-------

Asparagus farmer fined for illegal workers

24-02-2010

An asparagus farmer in jail awaiting her trial on human trafficking charges has been fined €283,000 ($383,360 USD) for employing illegal immigrants.

The council of state upheld a lower court ruling that the woman should be fined for employing large numbers of illegal Polish workers to pick asparagus in 2005 and 2006.

The farmer argued she could not pay the fine because it would ruin her business.

The two cases are not connected.

Illegal workers are common in the market gardening sector because of the low rates of pay and seasonal work.

© DutchNews.nl

Edited April 24, 2010 by Ali G.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Steven are you for real? Every chance you get you tell us how awesome illegal aliens are for America because a study or two based on opinion says so. Every time I see it I tell you it destroys American's living standards and suppresses the wage; something you downplay and ignore. Supply and Demand 101.

"No more slaves! Pay a living wage!" is exactly what many of us here have been saying since day one. However, you guys have turned it into anti-immigration and a race issue. In reality you have been enabling the slave drivers that exploit both these people and Americans. A job for an illegal alien means one job less for Americans. The more poor people enter illegally, the less these slave drivers pay and the worse their conditions get. If one dares complain, they are fired and replaced with another waiting to take their place. Whereas, in countries like Australia, there are few left to take their place; thus, the necessity to pay a decent wage. Not to mention, Australian unions have come down hard on anyone who employs illegal aliens. Also explains why blue collar workers earn well over $30 an hour there.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Here's some of the comments from the original article:

FECOYLE writes:

Why dont they go back to where they came from & get a job there?

.........

Shaawe writes:

Screw this! Here's an idea for ya. Buy out the farms, build golf courses and condos and buy the tomatos from Mexico. What gives these people the right to intimidate retail stores to extort more money? I have already stopped buying burgers and tacos from Taco Bell, McDonalds and Burger King because of just this sort of thing. If Publix bows down to these terrorists I'll add them to the list as well. Let them protest the farm owners where they work.Six Ls and Pacific are the true "slavers". Unbvelievable!

.........

firejoke writes:

I am so sick of these skumbags. If they don't like their pay then get a different job.

.........

tootsie writes:

Go back to where they came from and work there! Just DEPORT all the illegals! Get a bus and haul them to the nearest border. ... so simple

..........

sally1860 writes:

Most of you are total idiots. Your bigotry and stupidity is incredible. How many of you have ever been out to Immokalee to see how these farmworkers are forced to live?

The ones who were the victims of the most recent slavery case were kept in box trucks, often shackled, forced to use buckets in the truck for bodily functions, and allowed to "shower" once or twice a week, at night so nobody in the neighborhood would see them, by rinsing off with a garden hose.

Most of the workers live in nasty little trailers or concrete block houses, often as many as 15 men inside a small space with one bathroom, one small kitchen, one room where they spread out mattresses on the floor at night to sleep, and no heat or A/C. And for this they are charged $50/week per person. Do the math and figure out how much the owners of these hovels make off the workers.

These people are willing to do the work, which is 12-14 hr days, 6-7 days a week. They haven't received a pay increase since the 70's; they're paid by the bucket, not by the hour, and it's virtually impossible for them to pick enough to make even close to minimum wage. In the past they were often beaten or otherwise abused for something so simple as wanting a drink of water. They are often exposed to pesticides, and there have been several children born to women who worked for one of the farm owners who have had horrendous birth defects.

They aren't asking for anything other than to be treated as human beings, not as subhuman slaves. What they are asking for -- safe working conditions and a penny-a-bucket pay raise -- is not going to make them rich. They still have zero of the benefits of employment that most of you probably have. They deserve to be treated decently, just as you expect to be. There's no way that you would tolerate the conditions they've been living with for decades.

I know all this because I spent the day today out in Immokalee doing some volunteer work for the Coalition. It's truly eye-opening to walk around and see how these workers have to live. I recommend that some of you take a trip out there yourselves.

I won't be buying tomatoes from Publix until they get their heads out of their backsides and agree to pay the penny-a-pound increase.

link

[Ali G. 37]

You can't group everyone together, as you guys usually do, just because a handful of people have stupid comments. Therefore, all of our concerns must be stupid.

Instead of teaching home ec or sex ed, how about teaching economics 101? The more workers you have, the less you will pay them. Some like sally here may say, 'well we are not paying them enough' and we are not. So how do you change that? Will bringing even more of them in, as you have proposed Steve, change it? Will unionizing change it? No and No, as they will simply hire other illegal aliens. You know how you change it, you implement what most of us have said since day one:

1. E-verify be mandatory, as well as legitimate ID like a drivers license or passport.

2. UK style, $15K on-the-spot fine for the business (per offense) and $3K on-the-spot personal fine for offending managers.

3. Fifth separate offense resulting in prison and the sale of the business.

4. AUS style, implement a temp work visa but mandate that the immigrants must be paid the same rate as if a resident was to do the work.

The fourth one is good (go Aussies) because it ensure that immigrants are only brought in when locals truly do not want to do the work. Rather than hearsay; which as well all know is BS used by these slave drivers, in order to justify paying illegals cents to the hour.

I already posted an article above, from the Netherlands, where a farmer will face prison time and an whopping $383K USD fine for hiring illegals. Do you think anyone else will dare to hire people illegally or pay under the table after hearing that?

Edited April 24, 2010 by Ali G.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Okay, we've got a deal. No more burritos.

[luckytxn 2,265]

Luckily I know how to make burritos.

[Ali G. 37]

I prefer Fajitas anyway.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

I prefer Fajitas anyway.

You prefer the baloney pony.

[Ali G. 37]

You prefer the baloney pony.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

You love it.

[Ali G. 37]

You love it.

You must have me confused for Marc or Scandal amongst certain others. Comments like those are better suited amongst yourselves.