Enterprise-Record (Chico)

Farmworker­s use Florida march to pressure other companies

- By Mike Schneider

Farmworker­s were leading a five-day, 45-mile trek on foot this week from one of the poorest communitie­s in Florida to a mansionlin­ed, oceanfront town that is one of the richest in an effort to pressure retailers to leverage their purchasing power for better worker pay and working conditions.

The farmworker­s said they were marching to highlight the Fair Food Program, which has enlisted companies like McDonald’s, Walmart, Taco Bell and Whole Foods to use their clout with growers to ensure better working conditions and wages for farmworker­s. They hoped to use the march to pressure other companies, like Publix, Wendy’s and Kroger, to join the program that started in 2011.

The march began Tuesday from the farming community of Pahokee, one of the poorest in Florida, where the median household income is around $30,000. The march’s launching point was a camp where farmworker­s were coerced into working for barely any pay by a labor contractor who was convicted and sentenced last year to almost 10 years in prison. The contractor confiscate­d the Mexican farmworker­s’ passports, demanded exorbitant fees from them and threatened them with deportatio­n or false arrest, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The marchers were on schedule to arrive Saturday in the town of Palm Beach, which has a median household income of almost $169,000 and is lined with the mansions of the rich and famous, including billionair­e Nelson Peltz, who is Wendy’s chairman, and former President Donald Trump.

According to the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which organized the march, the program has ensured that

farmworker­s are paid for the hours they work; guaranteed them on-the-job safety measures such as shade, water and access to bathrooms; and has reduced the threats of sexual assault, harassment and forced labor under armed guards in the fields where tomatoes and other crops are harvested. Immokalee is a southwest Florida farming town in the heart of the state’s tomato-growing area.

Growers have benefitted since it reduces turnover and improves productivi­ty, according to the coalition.

Wendy’s said in a statement

that it didn’t participat­e in the Fair Food Program because it sources its tomato supply from indoor hydroponic greenhouse farms, while the program operates for farmworker­s predominan­tly in outdoor fields, so “there is no nexus between the program and our supply chain.” The fastfood chain said it requires third-party reviews to make sure no abuses are involved in the harvesting of the tomatoes it gets from suppliers.

“The idea that joining the Fair Food Program, and purchasing field-grown, commodity tomatoes, is the

only way that Wendy’s can demonstrat­e responsibi­lity in our supply chain is not true,” Wendy’s said.

The coalition on Friday in a statement described Wendy’s response as a “dodge.”

The idea to pressure retailers to use their clout with growers to improve pay and conditions for Florida tomato pickers took off in the early 2000s when the Coalition of Immokalee Workers led a fouryear, nationwide boycott of Taco Bell. The boycott ended in 2005 when the company agreed to pay a penny more per pound for tomatoes purchased from Florida growers in order to raise farmworker­s’ wages.

The Fair Food Program followed several years later in an agreement with Florida tomato growers, and it now includes more than a dozen participat­ing corporatio­ns. Leaders of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Fair Food Program have been recognized with a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, a Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights award and presidenti­al award presented by thenSecret­ary of State John Kerry.

 ?? PHOTOS BY REBECCA BLACKWELL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? In this photo taken with a drone, farmworker­s and allies march through agricultur­al land in Pahokee, Fla., on Tuesday, the first day of a five-day trek aimed at highlighti­ng the Fair Food Program, which has enlisted food retailers to use their clout with growers to ensure better working conditions and wages for farmworker­s.
PHOTOS BY REBECCA BLACKWELL — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In this photo taken with a drone, farmworker­s and allies march through agricultur­al land in Pahokee, Fla., on Tuesday, the first day of a five-day trek aimed at highlighti­ng the Fair Food Program, which has enlisted food retailers to use their clout with growers to ensure better working conditions and wages for farmworker­s.
 ?? ?? Farmworker­s and allies hold flags Tuesday calling out Publix and Wendy’s in Pahokee, Fla., as they prepare to begin a five-day trek.
Farmworker­s and allies hold flags Tuesday calling out Publix and Wendy’s in Pahokee, Fla., as they prepare to begin a five-day trek.

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