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Worker Exploitation on Florida's Tomato Fields
Senator Sanders is working to open the eyes of America to the conditions under which workers toil to produce the food we eat. From his trip to African cocoa plantations to his support of tomato farm workers in Immokalee, Florida, Sanders has worked to shine a light into the corners of society from which our consumer goods come. This January, on the same day that a 17-count indictment was handed down for enslavement of laborers in tomato fields, Sanders meet with the Immokalee farm workers in Florida. Tragically, working conditions on these farms have changed little since 1960, when Edward R. Morrow exposed the horrendous treatment of farm laborers in the broadcast documentary Harvest of Shame. Recently, a national campaign has developed to support these workers’ efforts to improve wages and working conditions. Leveraging his position on the Senate labor committee, Sanders proposed that the committee review the conditions faced daily by the men and women in the tomato fields of Immokalee. In America, in the year 2008, it is not acceptable that workers producing the food we eat should live in these conditions.
Below, please find a collection of news about the situation in Immokalee.
Admitted Slavery in America Today? - 09/03/2008
"I think most Americans would find it hard to believe that people in our country are pleading guilty to slavery charges in the year 2008, but that is what is going on in the tomato fields of Florida," said Sen. Bernie Sanders. Tuesday, five residents of Immokalee, Florida pled guilty to what Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Doug Molloy called "slavery, plain and simple." Sanders visited Immokalee earlier this year and chaired a hearing of the Senate labor committee to discuss the situation there. He said, "While slavery is, of course, the most extreme situation in the tomato fields, the truth is that the average worker there is being ruthlessly exploited. Tomato pickers perform backbreaking work, make very low wages, have no benefits and virtually no labor protections." READ MORE
Tomato growers' group relents on imposing fine for giving pickers raise (Ft. Myers News-Press) - 05/23/2008
By Amy Bennett Williams
The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange is backing off from its threat to impose $100,000 fines on members who participate in a penny-per-pound pay raise for tomato harvesters. Since last November, that threat has stalled the distribution of the increase - paid by fast food companies and not growers - from reaching pickers.
Reggie Brown, the exchange's executive vice president, told The News-Press on Thursday that the change was in response to the "inordinate and inappropriate focus on the fine issue by the media. We thought it better to take that issue off the table."
That doesn't mean the exchange, to which some 90 percent of the state' s tomato growers belong, supports the increase. On the contrary, Brown said, the group is still so troubled by legal questions about the raise that it continues to advise members to not participate, Brown said. READ MORE
Have it Your Way - 05/23/2008
Burger King and a farm workers organization reached agreement to boost wages and improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers. The fast-food giant joins McDonald's and Taco Bell owner Yum Brands, which already have similar deals with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Senator Bernie Sanders, who visited Florida last winter, hosted a Capitol press conference to announce the agreement. "What I saw shocked me," he said. "I saw hopelessness among workers that I had never seen before in the U.S. I saw people making pathetically low wages. I saw people living in terrible housing conditions paying extremely high rents, while others were unable to access health care. Ironically, on the day that I was in Immokalee, another indictment on slavery charges was issued. In a nation where millions of workers are seeing their wages decline and where we are involved in a tragic race to the bottom, I saw that bottom." READ MORE
Burger King and farmworker group reach deal to boost wages (The Associated Press) - 05/23/2008
MIAMI - A farmworkers advocacy group and Burger King Corp. have agreed on a deal to help boost wages and improve conditions for Florida tomato pickers, both sides said Friday.
The plan ends a bitter dispute between the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Miami-based fast-food giant. Burger King agreed to pay 1.5 cents more per pound of tomatoes it buys from Florida growers, with the understanding that a penny of that will be passed to workers. The agreement follows a congressional hearing in April led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who called for an investigation into farmworker conditions in Florida. READ MORE
Invasions of Privacy (The Nation) - 05/11/2008
By Katrina vanden Heuvel and Greg Kaufmann
Two weeks ago, I asked a Burger King spokeswoman whether the company had hired a private investigator firm to infiltrate the non-violent Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) or Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). She declined to comment. I asked whether the company was aware of any executives making "libelous" comments against CIW via online posts and e-mails. Again, no comment.
Now we know why.
The Fort Myers News-Press linked Vice President Steve Grover to the anti-CIW posts that he made through "his young daughter's online alias." And in an explosive op-ed in the New York Times last week, investigative journalist and author of Fast Food Nation Eric Schlosser revealed that, in fact, the company used Diplomatic Tactical Services - a private security firm specializing in "covert surveillance" and "covert operations" - to spy on the SFA and CEO John Chidsey knew the firm had been hired to do investigations. READ MORE
Modern Day Slavery (CNN) - 05/09/2008
By Abbie Boudreau, CNN Special Investigations Unit Correspondent
U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders says he's appalled by some of the conditions in these labor camps in Florida. Now he's fighting for better wages for these migrants who are often here illegally so they don't report their abuses, instead they live a life of slavery in silence. Modern day slavery, workers allegedly held captive in plain sight. Cases where prosecutors say migrants were locked overnight in vans like this one in southwest Florida, pushed and kicked if they didn't work. Investigators say one man's hands were chained behind his back.
Nearby, across the street from a busy casino, laborers escorted to this phone booth, allowed to call home, but not allowed to say they're being held as slaves.
It's situations like these that Senator Bernie Sanders says must stop... READ MORE
Op-Ed: Burger With a Side of Spies (NY Times) - 05/07/2008
By Eric Schlosser
WHILE the Patriot Act has raised fears about government spying on ordinary citizens, the growing threat to civil liberties posed by corporate spying has received much less attention. During the late 1990s, a private security firm spied on Greenpeace and other environmental groups, examining activists' phone records and even sending undercover agents to infiltrate the groups, according to an article in Mother Jones. In 2006 Hewlett-Packard was caught spying on journalists. Last year Wal-Mart apologized for improperly recording conversations with a New York Times reporter.
And now it turns out that the Burger King Corporation, home of the Whopper, hired a private security firm to spy on the Student/Farmworker Alliance, a group of idealistic college students trying to improve the lives of migrants in Florida. READ MORE
Burger King VP puts self on grill (Ft. Myers News-Press) - 04/28/2008
Daughter says dad wrote anti-coaltion postings
By Amy Bennett Williams
As the Coalition of Immokalee Workers prepares to deliver more than 60,000 petitions to Burger King headquarters in Miami today, the daughter of Burger King's vice-president Stephen Grover confirmed her father is responsible for online postings vilifying the coalition.
The Immokalee-based group is asking Burger King to improve tomato harvesters' working conditions and pay a penny more a pound for tomatoes, which could add about $20 to a daily wage of $50, workers say.
McDonald's and Yum! Brands, the world's biggest fast-food chain and restaurant company, respectively, have agreed to the raise. Yum! signed on in 2005; McDonald's in 2007. So far, Burger King has refused, while publicly saying it wants to work with the coalition to improve labor conditions.
Yet often during the past year, when articles or videos about the coalition were posted on YouTube and various Internet news sites, someone using the online names activist2008 or surfxaholic36 would attach comments coalition member Greg Asbed has called "libelous."
This one, from surfxaholic36, is representative: "The CIW is an attack organization lining the leaders pockets ... They make up issues and collect money from dupes that believe their story. To (sic) bad the people protesting don't have a clue regarding the facts. A bunch of fools!" READ MORE
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