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NAPLE DAILY NEWS
Immokalee in the spotlight at farmworker wage hearing
By KATY BISHOP
Immokalee’s farmworkers will step into the national spotlight Tuesday.
Farmworker, grower and law enforcement representatives from Collier
County are scheduled to testify at a U.S. Senate Health, Education,
Labor and Pensions committee hearing titled: “Ending Abuses and
Improving Working Conditions for Tomato Workers.”
The hearing, in Washington, D.C., at 10 a.m. is to be held by committee
chairmen U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and U.S. Sen. Bernie
Sanders, I-Vt.
It comes after Sanders visited Immokalee in January to urge support for
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Campaign for Fair Food, which is
working to persuade Burger King to raise tomato workers’ pay.
McDonald’s Corp. and Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands Inc. agreed to work
with the coalition to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes bought
from Florida farms, which would be passed along to the workers. But
those deals are on hold because growers balked at participating.
Coalition co-founder Lucas Benitez, a former tomato farmworker, is
expected to testify at the hearing, along with Collier sheriff’s
investigator Charlie Frost, who investigates human trafficking; Reggie
Brown, Florida Tomato Grower Exchange executive vice president; Roy
Reyna, Immokalee farm manager; Mary Bauer, Southern Poverty Law Center
immigrant justice project director; and Eric Schlosser, investigative
reporter and author of “Fast Food Nation.”
Sanders, Kennedy, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin, D-Ill.,
and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, sent a letter to seven grocery and food
service companies urging them to participate in an initiative to
increase compensation for workers. Then, in March, legislators
threatened to introduce legislation and to scrutinize companies with
government contracts to pressure Florida tomato growers to boost wages.
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