FORT MYERS (Florida) NEWS-PRESS

May 7, 2007

Church celebrates win by migrant workers
Tomato pickers' conditions improve with agreement

By Joe Gonzalez

On any given Sunday, the weekly service for All Faiths Unitarian Congregation members is less about spiritual salvation and more about community issues.

This Sunday was no different as 160-plus members of the south Fort Myers organization gathered to celebrate a recent agreement among the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the migrant farmworkers they represent, and McDonald's and its suppliers to improve worker conditions. The congregation became involved with the workers several years ago through the coalition. The service included a celebration of Cinco de Mayo.

The agreement, reached in April, is a plan to pay farmworkers 1 cent more per pound of tomatoes that are sold to the fast-food giant. Currently, workers are paid 40 to 45 cents per bucket, and pick some 125 buckets — about 2 tons — every working day. By October, when the agreement kicks in, the 1 cent-per-pound increase means workers will receive 72 to 75 cents per bucket.

"I think it's terrific," said congregation member Linda Forcey, a south Fort Myers resident who follows the farm workers' situation. "I think it will help. It's a long struggle. But I'm scared about the hate there seems to be generating among so many people regarding immigration. It's very scary, so there's a lot more to be done."

Farmworker and Coalition for Immokalee Workers representative Romeo Ramirez described to the congregation how tomatoes get to their favorite stores and restaurants.

"The tomatoes that we consume do not arrive on their own," Ramirez said in Spanish through an interpreter, drawing a chuckle from the crowd.

Workers crouch and bend over most of the day, opening the tomato plants that are typically filled with pesticides to extract the tomato. They fill 32-pound buckets, hoist them on one shoulder, then run to a truck to deposit the goods. Each worker gets a ticket for each filled bucket.

By the end of the day, if a worker picks 125 buckets, he goes home with about $52.

The agreement with McDonald's — nearly mirroring the one with Taco Bell — nearly doubles the pay.

"The wages they were getting in 1977 were about the same wages they were getting in 1997," said the Rev. Wayne Robinson, the congregation's minister since its inception in 2001. "It's one thing to want fresh vegetables. It's another to realize how they get here. Part of our education is to realize what happens to the workers and their situation."

The agreement also includes improvements in farmworkers' conditions, a code-of-conduct in the field, and a promise to develop a monitoring mechanism to help protect workers' rights.

Robinson's sermon focused on the oppression of immigrants through the generations.

"We are part of a racist culture stretching back almost 400 years that we have to continuously work to overcome," he told the congregation.

But Sunday was all about recognizing farmworkers and how the work of helping them get a better life must continue.

"People of faith are called upon to reaffirm their commitment to the least among us," Robinson said. "People like the Immokalee workers who pick our tomatoes and harvest our oranges. People who clean our houses, tend our children and care for our lawn. They too want a better future. They too have a name, and they too have a right to respect and appreciation."

Congregation members raised $1,388 in donations, which included $1,000 from a couple who requested to remain anonymous.

Each congregation member received a tomato, symbolic of the group's support. Among them was Fort Myers Councilman Warren Wright, whose Ward 1 he estimates comprises some 2,500 to 3,000 Hispanics.

"I'm grateful and excited for the farmworkers, as far as the agreements," he said. "My frustration is that we have a federal government that has ignored the situation for so long, and that has compounded the problem."