Florida’s tomato pickers, faith leaders and consumers once again on Sunday, called out Publix supermarket over their lack of social responsibility and refusal to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program.
With chants of “What do we want? Justice,” and “When do we want it? Now,” protesters marched outside the Publix located at 400 E. Central Boulevard downtown Orlando.
“We are here as farmworkers who pick the tomatoes that are sold in Publix stores for which we receive only fifty cents a bucket and that’s just way too little,” said Angelina Vasquez. “It’s very difficult work and with just a penny more per pound we can take better care of our families and have our rights respected.”
For more than three years, Publix, Florida’s largest privately-owned corporation has refused to join other major food retailers that are part of the Fair Food Program that improves the wages and work conditions of Florida tomato harvesters. Major buyers of tomatoes like McDonald’s, Subway, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, already pay a premium of one penny per pound which is passed on by growers to farmworkers.
Notwithstanding Publix’s intransigence, the CIW has been selected to receive the prestigious 2013 Freedom from Want Medal from the Roosevelt Institute in October, in recognition of their two decades of work on behalf of farmworkers’ human and economic rights and the unprecedented advances of the Fair Food Program. The CIW joins a distinguished group of past laureates including Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.
Gerardo Reyes, a member of the CIW and one of those who protested yesterday, is buoyed by the momentum the Coalition is gaining and believes it’s just a matter of time before Publix signs on to the Fair Food Program.
“We have been building a lot of alliances not only across Florida, but nationwide as well, and sooner or later it will happen,” he said. “We are offering Publix an opportunity on this Labor Day not just to do the right thing by farmworkers, but by their own consumers who are asking the same thing – sit with us, sign this [Fair Food Program] agreement.”
“It’s time to work together to ensure dignified treatment in the workplace where for far too long workers have suffered too many abuses,” Reyes added.
Publix has continued to spout falsehoods for their non-participation in the Fair Food Program, including claiming that they don’t want to get involved in “a labor dispute” and that the penny should be “put in the price” the industry charges for tomatoes, which in fact, is already the case.
A small group of tomato farmers who met with Publix managers, received a “thank you for being here,” after they made representation regarding the sub-poverty wages and daily violations of their basic human rights, in order to harvest Florida’s tomatoes.
“‘What are you doing for workers as you celebrate this Labor Day?’, we asked them,” said Lupe Gonzalo, one of those who met with Publix managers. “They didn’t have an answer.”
The group reminded the managers that they too are workers who could play a role in influencing Publix at the corporate level, Gonzalo said. We asked them to keep bringing up our message in Lakeland.
Gonzalo said, it is particularly important for Publix to see that the CIW has broad-based support, including from consumers, faith leaders and all those who believe in justice and the protection of basic human rights.
“We are going to continue our protests, continue standing together, and calling on Publix to do the right thing,” she said. “And one day we are going to take off the blindfold from Publix and that will be a great day.”
And with chants of Sí, se puede,” protestors reaffirmed their commitment to continue the Publix Campaign.
