From the Palm Beach Post (11/21/2003)
"Three men convicted
of forcing 700 workers into slave labor in Florida's
citrus groves drew prison sentences totaling 34 years
and nine months Wednesday in addition to forfeiting
$3 million in proceeds from their immigrant smuggling
operation.
The presiding federal
judge also criticized the citrus industry, calling
the slavery convictions a sign of the larger problems
in Florida's second-largest industry.
'Others at a higher
level of the fruit picking industry seem complicit
in one way or another with how these activities occur,
' US District Judge K. Michael Moore said while handing
down the sentences. 'I think there is a broader interest
out there the government should look into as well...'"
_____________________
Those are the first three paragraphs of the Thursday,
Nov. 21, front page Palm Beach Post article announcing
the sentencing of the three Lake Placid, FL, crewleaders
found guilty earlier this summer of modern-day slavery,
a case in which the Coalition of Immokalee Workers
played a key role.
The Lake Placid case is the sixth major modern-day
slavery case to be brought to justice in South Florida
in the past five years (the CIW has been involved
in five of those cases, discovering, investigating,
and assisting in the prosecution of the operations).
While we are pleased with the lengthy sentences and
believe that they will send a strong message to the
crewleader community, we also agree with Judge Moore
in one important sense: until the agricultural industry
as a whole is held accountable for these gross violations
of their workers' human rights, slavery in Florida's
fields will not end.
The backward, oppressive state of agricultural
labor relations in Florida today is the fertile ground
in which modern-day slavery is allowed to take root
and flourish. If we are to be serious about eliminating
peonage, then it is time, finally, that Florida's
major corporate growers recognize their workers as
partners in the industry and sit at the table with
workers' representatives to negotiate more modern,
more humane working conditions.
But we will take the judge's concerns one step further.
Until the corporations that profit from cheap Florida
produce -- corporations like Taco Bell -- are obliged
to acknowledge their role in keeping wages and working
conditions in Florida fields as miserable as they
are, farm labor conditions will not improve.
The fast-food industry has grown almost overnight
into a multi-billion dollar, multi-national industry,
thanks, in large part, to low-cost ingredients that
have allowed chains like Taco Bell, McDonald's, and
Burger King to control costs and plow their profits
back into advertising and expansion. Today, the key
to solving the seemingly insolvable problem of farmworker
exploitation lies in the vast resources of the fast-food
industry, the tiniest portion of which could immeasurably
improve the lives of millions of farmworkers and their
families, from Florida to California.
Convictions and harsh sentences for crewleaders who
enslave their workers are necessary today because
corporate growers and their multi-billion dollar corporate
clients continue to demand cheap labor, without any
concern given to how labor costs are controlled. But
prosecution alone is not the solution. That is why
the Taco Bell boycott is so important. Only by making
those who profit most from farmworkers' exploited
labor pay the true cost of harvesting this country's
crops will we be able, once and for all, to close
the book on America's "Harvest of Shame".
If you don't believe us, just ask Judge Moore.
