Florida Activist Training Draws 200 Union Members
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Joshua Anijar, a zone coordinator for the Florida AFL-CIO, sends us this report on a recent activist training session that drew more than 200 union members from Central Florida Labor Council unions in Orlando late last month.
This was the Central Florida AFL-CIO’s first activist training and it will become an annual event to help equip union members with the skills and training that will help in organizing, political and other mobilizations. We had rank-and-file union members from more than two dozen unions and constituency and other labor groups.
Fernando Redon from Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 606 says the daylong session with speakers and workshops
gave my members a chance to get training on topics that can help them be more active in their local meetings or on the job site, while giving them a larger perspective and education of worker struggle, dignity and justice.
Tomato Workers Score Huge Victory
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In a huge win for farm workers, one of the nation’s top food service and management companies reached an agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to improve working conditions and give a raise directly to Florida’s tomato harvesters.
The pact between Compass Group North America and the CIW calls for the company to pay an additional 1.5 cents per pound for all the tomatoes it purchases each year, with 1 cent per pound passed directly from the supplier to the workers. The agreement boosts workers’ wages from 50 cents for a 32-pound bucket to 82 cents per bucket, a 64 percent increase.
This is the first agreement where the money goes directly to the workers. Previous agreements called for the money to go into an escrow account.
Tomato Workers Win Agreement with Subway
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The campaign to bring better wages and improve working conditions to Florida’s tomato fields took a big step last week when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) reached agreement with Subway, the world’s third largest fast-food chain and biggest fast-food buyer of Florida tomatoes.
Subway also joins other fast-food industry leaders and the CIW in calling on the Florida tomato industry to institute an industry-wide penny per pound surcharge to increase wages for all Florida tomato harvesters. That means the workers will get 72 cents to 77 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick, up from 40 cents to 45 cents.
