Orlando Sentinel

September 23, 2004

Growers get steamed as fern workers receive aid

By Jeff Libby
Sentinel Staff Writer


PIERSON -- Fern growers pushed to cut off hurricane relief to farm laborers last week because they were worried that the steady flow of free ice, hot meals and baby food was discouraging the workers from returning to the fields.

The growers found an advocate in Town Council Chairman Samuel Bennett, a fellow grower who also serves as the town's director of emergency management. Bennett ordered a volunteer to shut down the distribution site Sept. 15, four days earlier than scheduled, according to the volunteer and several officials.

"Sam Bennett said, 'They don't need any more food. They need to get back to work,' " said Howard Stewart McBride, the volunteer who supervised the distribution site at Taylor Middle-High School. At Bennett's order, McBride said, he posted a closure notice on a gate at the entrance to the parking lot and told aid workers from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Volusia County and the Red Cross that it would shut down for good at day's end.

"The FEMA people all got on their cell phones," McBride said. "They seemed surprised. . . . They kind of got upset."

Despite Bennett's order, relief services for laborers were never interrupted. At 7 a.m. the next day, the site re-opened as scheduled after county, state and federal officials intervened.

Advocate: It's shameful

Nonetheless, advocates for the mostly Hispanic farmworkers are furious at what they see as a disregard for the welfare of laborers who make about a penny per frond at backbreaking work.

"At this moment we see very clearly that the growers don't care about the workers at all. They don't believe the people deserve anything," said Tirso Moreno, director of the Apopka-based Farmworker Association of Florida. He helped persuade FEMA officials to open the site in the first place.

"It's shameful," said Zenaida Denizac, president of the Volusia County Hispanic Association. FEMA shut down the relief site Friday, two days after Bennett's order. Officials with the agency said that Bennett's action had nothing to do with that decision; the agency had finished registering families for federal aid and determined that emergency services were needed more elsewhere.

Bennett is one of five fern growers on Pierson's six-person Town Council, but he did not have any official backing. He said Wednesday that he stood by his actions.

"All of the agencies worked together and did an outstanding job when there was a need," Bennett said. "But there was, if you will, a little overkill. The need had been taken care of."

Power had been restored to most homes and businesses in the wake of Hurricane Frances, and few homes in the area had major damage, he said. The laborers no longer needed to be given aid, he said, because there was plenty of work available rebuilding the miles of shade cloth that protect the delicate ferns from the sun.

The fern industry employs about 5,000 people in Volusia, Lake and Putnam counties and produces about 80 percent of the nation's cut foliage for floral decorations, generating about $100 million each year. But the farms were hit hard by Frances. Preliminary damage estimates for the three counties' ferneries total more than $350 million, and industry officials say many farmers will be put out of business.

Other growers speak out

Bennett said that's why several growers came to him for help, frustrated that they could not get enough workers to repair damage. Bennett said he did not have that problem at his fernery.

James Peterson, a fellow Town Council member who also is a fern grower, backed up Bennett, saying that the FEMA aid site was serving only as a distraction and was hampering the recovery of the area.

"The workers are driving $40,000 trucks, nicer than anything you or I drive, and they're hollering that they can't find work," Peterson said. "There's plenty of work here."

Bob Greenlund, another council member, said he had never seen as many people in Pierson as on a day earlier this month when about 9,000 laborers lined up for aid. But Greenlund said laborers were not missing work to stand in line. His laborers have been working every day, he said.

County leader weighs in

Bennett's attempt to shut the site sparked a flurry of phone calls that eventually led to County Council Chairman Dwight Lewis, whose district includes Pierson, calling Bennett and urging him to relent.

"I said, 'Sammy, I don't know where you are [coming from], but we need to complete the job. It will be better for you and for the fern industry,' " Lewis said.

The relief site was one of three in Central Florida targeted at populations with large numbers of documented and undocumented immigrants, who are less likely to seek help, said Justo Hernandez, FEMA deputy federal coordinating officer for outreach.

"We saw a real need to feed those people. We were not going to leave them behind," he said.

Denizac, whose county Hispanic Association helped lead another relief effort that brought supplies to farmworkers in the nearby community of Seville, said she is planning to bring more supplies to the laborers this weekend.

"There is a need [still] going on," she said.