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Immokalee tomato labor group pressures Publix
By Doug Ohlemeier
Eastern Editor
Shortly after garnering support from two growers, the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers has begun pressuring Publix Super Markets, Inc.,
Lakeland, Fla., to participate in deals to increase pay for Florida
tomato pickers.
The coalition started a letter-writing campaign to convince Publix to
pay its farmworkers an additional penny per pound.
Maria Brous, Publix’s director of media and community relations, issued
a statement saying that tomatoes are just one of more than 35,000
products Publix sells.
“With so many products available for sale to consumers, the reality is
that there is the potential for countless ongoing disputes between
suppliers, their employees and/or their unions, at any one time,” she
said in the statement.
“Publix has a long history of non-intervention in such disputes.”
Whole Foods Market, Inc., Austin, Texas, said June 4 that two Florida
organic vegetable grower-shippers joined the retailer’s efforts to
support the coalition’s penny initiative.
Libba Letton, a Whole Foods spokeswoman, said the agreements with
Alderman Farms Sales Corp., Boynton Beach, Fla., and Chambersburg,
Pa.-based Lady Moon Farms, Inc., which has a Punta Gorda, Fla.,
operation, has the retailer paying them a premium to distribute to its
workers.
Growers’ viewpoint
Bob Spencer, vice president and sales manager of West Coast Tomato,
Inc., Palmetto, Fla., which has production in Immokalee, said tomato
growers pay workers well above government regulations and do not
mistreat their workers.
“People are free to say what they want to say, but the problem is, after
a while, the CIW starts to lose credibility because all they do is make
these wild charges, but they don’t back them up with any proof,” Spencer
said.
“We have nothing to gain by mistreating the people who allow us to grow
our crops and send them to market.”
Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Maitland-based Florida
Tomato Exchange, said the tomato industry is caught in a situation where
third-party entities such as the CIW, which is a charity, have acted
like a union in demanding higher worker wages.
He said the industry doesn’t deal directly with the CIW.
According to a state government opinion, if the industry
negotiates with the group, the CIW becomes a labor union.
CIW spokesman Lucas Benitez contends growers won’t improve worker wages
because they are aught in a cost/price squeeze.
“We have put a great deal of thought and effort into addressing growers’
concerns and developing a campaign based on the principle that we should
not have to fight over table scraps to address the longstanding problem
of farm labor poverty and abuse, but rather that there are enough
resources in the food industry as a whole to allow us to move forward
together,” he said.
After national boycotts against some quick-service restaurant chains,
the CIW has secured deals with Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King and
Subway.
“They’ve used very aggressive tactics with these QSRs in terms of
shutting down restaurants, picketing, disrupting their business and
forcing them to deal with this rogue organization,” said industry
consultant Don Goodwin, owner and president of Golden Sun Marketing,
Minnetrista, Minn.
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