Tomato Pickers’ Struggle Coming to a Grocery Store Near You
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The fight for justice for tomato pickers is headed to grocery store aisles across the country now that the top three food service companies and the four largest fast-food companies have signed agreements to improve wages and working conditions in the Florida tomato fields.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) announced earlier this week that Sodexo, the largest food service company in the nation, had agreed to pay an additional 1.5 cents for every pound of Florida tomatoes it purchases, with the extra money going directly to the harvesters.
At least 30,000 immigrant farm workers in Florida pick 95 percent of the nation’s tomato crop between October and June. The workers are demanding safer, more humane working conditions and a penny more per pound of tomatoes picked. Florida tomato pickers earn 45 cents for a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, a rate that has not changed for three decades.
Sodexo joins a growing list of companies that have signed agreements with CIW, including Aramark, Compass Group North America, Bon Appetit Management Co., Subway, Taco Bell and its corporate parent, Yum! Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King, and Whole Foods Market.
Immokalee Freedom March Challenges Publix to Do the Right Thing
More than 1,000 farm workers and religious, student and fair food activists braved the rain for a massive picket, march and rally in Lakeland, Fla., Sunday to demand that Publix Super Markets respect the human rights of the workers who provide the food on the store shelves.
Here’s how Eric Holt Gimenez described the scene on Huffington Post:
Despite a steady drizzle, marchers laid a double picket line down the entire long block of the Publix shopping center, marching, singing and dancing. Bilingual chants of “Hey hey, ho ho Publix poverty has got to go!” and Publix, escucha, el pueblo esta en la lucha!
A stream of vehicles drove past the protesters, many honking their horns in support.
Florida Students Rally for Tobacco Workers
Students at the University of Florida (UF) and the University of Central Florida (UCF) spent last Saturday morning raising their voices for justice for tobacco workers. Chanting ”Justice now!” and holding signs that read “Hasta la Victoria” (“Onward to Victory”), dozens of students marched and rallied on UF’s Gainesville campus.
The students joined members of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the Student/Farmworker Alliance and the National Farm Worker Ministry to demand justice for tobacco farm workers in North Carolina who suffer low wages and poor working conditions at the hands of Big Tobacco.
The rally followed a UF Student Senate resolution calling for a pay increase and better treatment of Immokalee farm workers, who pick the tomatoes used by Aramark, UF’s food provider. “Somebody’s got to fight for social justice,” said UF junior Justin Wooten.
