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Farm workers eye Stop & Shop
By Donna Goodison
A
Florida farm workers group is lobbying Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. to
pony up a penny more a pound for its tomatoes.
The additional money would help end alleged forced labor, poverty wages
and other human rights abuses faced by farm workers harvesting tomatoes,
according to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
The CIW already has convinced Yum Brands, McDonald’s, Burger King,
Subway,
Whole Foods Market, Compass Group and Bon Appetit
Management to sign its “Fair Food” agreement. The pact requires
companies to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida
tomato suppliers, pay a premium price for tomatoes and buy them only
from growers meeting certain standards.
A group calling itself the New England Delegation for Farm Worker
Justice demonstrated outside Stop & Shop’s Quincy headquarters Friday to
put pressure on the company and raise public awareness.
It was following up on a letter sent to the grocery chain a month
earlier that’s so far garnered no response, according to Camilo Viveiros,
the group’s coordinator and executive director of Rhode Island Jobs with
Justice.
“It’s a simple request that they give farm workers a penny-a-pound raise
and build a relationship where they would monitor the conditions in the
field,” Viveiros said.
Tomato pickers earn 40 to 50 cents for each 32-lb. bucket of tomatoes
they harvest, a pay rate that hasn’t risen significantly since 1978,
according to the CIW. A worker must pick close to 2.5 tons to earn
minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day, it said.
The CIW, which also is targeting the Florida-based Publix supermarket
chain, takes credit for helping federal officials investigate and
prosecute six cases of “modern slavery” in Florida agriculture.
“The penny-a-pound increase would raise the standards for everyone and
hopefully make it less conducive for those types of conditions to
exist,” Viveiros said.
“Without an increase in pay the spectrum of exploitation is still
there.”
Stop & Shop spokeswoman Faith Weiner said the chain shares CIW’s
concerns and will give its letter “thoughtful and careful”
consideration.
“We will reiterate to our suppliers our expectations and our commitment
that (parent company) Ahold source tomatoes in a socially responsible
manner, as we believe we currently do,” Weiner said. “We also will
continue to monitor the situation.”
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