CONGRESS HEARS THE CALL! March 13, 2008 CIW petition campaign wins powerful new support from lawmakers in the nation’s capital! (Photos by Fritz Myer)

CONGRESS HEARS THE CALL!
March 13, 2008

CIW petition campaign wins powerful new support
from lawmakers in the nation’s capital!

(Photos by Fritz Myer)


A veritable Mount Rushmore of progressive lawmakers — including here, from left to right, Rep. John Conyers, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (speaking) and Sen. Richard Durbin, joined by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney (second from left) — gathered in the shadow of the Capitol building in Washington, DC this Thursday, March 13th…


… with members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (Lucas Benitez, shown speaking, with translation by Melody Gonzalez of the Student/Farmworker Alliance) and representatives from dozens of church, student, labor, and human rights organizations in support of the CIW’s national petition drive to end slavery and sweatshops in the fields.


Senator Bernie Sanders, whose visit to Immokalee in the wake of the most recent slavery indictment helped draw the attention of lawmakers to the inhumane conditions in Florida’s fields, was the master of ceremony for the event.

Sen. Sanders left no doubt in his opening address that long-overdue change was on its way, saying: “As someone who represents Vermont, the first state in the United States to outlaw slavery, it is almost incomprehensible to me that we are standing here today — at the beginning of the 21st century — holding a press conference to bring attention to the fact that workers in the tomato fields of Florida are working in desperate conditions, conditions that in some cases are so extreme that even the Bush Administration has brought slavery charges. This is a disgrace and an outrage that cannot be allowed to continue.


He then passed the microphone to his colleague in the Senate, Sen. Richard Durbin, the Assistant Majority Leader in the Senate (or, as it is also known, the Majority Whip), who began by declaring, “It is unthinkable that in the United States of America someone can be successfully prosecuted for slavery in this day and age, but it has happened.

Sen. Durbin continued, relating his frustration following a recent meeting with representatives of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange: “Tomato pickers in Florida are working twelve hours days in terrible conditions for substandard wages and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange refuse to admit there is any problem. Senator Sanders and I disagree. And in our meeting with the Growers Exchange Tuesday night, we made it very clear that we going to stand up for the tomato pickers. The Growers Exchange refused to even consider any change in compensation or living conditions.


Sen. Sanders and Sen. Durbin also announced that they had sent seven companies — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Winn-Dixie Stores Inc., Kroger Co., Publix, Safeway Inc., US Food Service, Supervalu Inc. and Sysco Corp. — letters asking them to join McDonald’s and Yum Brands in the extra penny-a-pound program.

Some of these companies are big vendors with the federal government,” Durbin said. “We can connect the dots. We’re going to examine this very closely.”

You can hear the press conference in its entirety — with speeches by all the lawmakers, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, and Lucas Benitez of the CIW — by clicking here.

Also, you can click on the links below to see some of the media coverage of the ceremony:


Next to speak was AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, a long-time CIW ally. His speech was, as always, stirring and hard-hitting. Here’s an excerpt:

“We’re here for one reason – to join in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to support our sisters and brothers who pick tomatoes in the fields of Florida, to stand up for what’s right.

We’re here because when you’re doing the tough work of tomato-picking day after day, week after week — when you’re struggling hard just to make a living, just to survive — then you deserve fair wages and decent treatment so you can support yourself and your loved ones, but that’s not what’s happening.

Instead, our food is harvested by workers who are sometimes held against their will — beaten — forced to work for little pay, or even no pay at all… We saw it in the latest slavery case down in Florida, where tomato pickers were locked in U-Haul trucks and they were beaten when they tried to escape.

For every worker who’s held in outright slavery, there are thousands more who are trying to survive with poverty wages — no right to overtime pay — no sick leave — no freedom to organize into unions — no future — no hope. I’ve been to Immokalee — I’ve seen it with my own eyes.


Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and the second-longest serving member of the House, spoke next. Rep. Conyers told the press that he had just placed a call to Burger King CEO John Chidsey to invite Mr. Chidsey to “come to Washington, sit with me in my office, and see if we can work this out, because the question isn’t ‘if’ but ‘when.‘”

He continued, saying that “this is the beginning of a movement for millions of people… So, John Chidsey, wherever you are, give me a call… because every day that we lose coming to an agreement is that much more suffering going on that we can alleviate.


Rep. Dennis Kucinich, with oratory skills clearly honed to a razor’s edge on the campaign trail, stepped to the podium and gave a powerful speech, declaring: “The civil rights movement is not over. It begins again here today. In the name of all the workers who are in the field, we stand with you in solidarity. And we will communicate with American consumers that we need their help to join in this effort to put the economic pressure on those who are using these products so that we can let them know that we will not tolerate slave labor and we will not tolerate the exploitation of people.

The human rights movement and the civil rights movement have merged today!”


The press conference ended with words from the two co-conveners of the event, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, represented by its Director Monika Kalra Varma, and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, represented by Lucas Benitez and Mathieu Beaucicot. Monika recalled the history of the early abolitionists and the power of the consumer boycott in ending the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

Lucas’ address echoed the words of another speech made 45 years ago in Washington, in the shadow of the Lincoln Memorial, declaring: “Together, we can bring a close to the shameful era when, amidst a sea of wealth and plenty, farmworkers have lived, decade after decade, on a tiny island of poverty and degradation.

Mathieu tied his speech to the history of his own country, Haiti, and his ancestors’ historic battle for dignity and freedom: “At a time when civilized people still questioned the very humanity of millions of human beings, my ancestors proved that we would fight and we would die for our liberty. And we defeated the greatest army in the world, the army of Napoleon. Today, we as Haitian farmworkers in Immokalee have joined forces with our brothers and sisters in the fields to fight a new slavery. And just as no one believed we would win 200 years ago, we will prevail today against all expectations and against forces infinitely more powerful than we are.”

Click here to see the texts of the two CIW speeches.


Finally, it was time to sign the petition.

Here below is an excerpt from the petition (click here to see the petition in its entirety and add your signature today):

“WHEREAS, there is an ongoing human rights crisis in Florida’s fields, including:

  • poverty wages, rooted in an antiquated piece-rate pay system that hasn’t changed significantly in nearly 30 years;
  • long hours without overtime pay when work is available, unemployment and transience when it is not;
  • physical abuse and wage fraud by crewleaders, supervisors, and growers;
  • damage to body and soul from back-breaking labor, with no employment benefits such as sick days, paid leave, health insurance, or pensions;
  • retaliation against workers who protest or organize to alleviate these inhuman conditions;
  • and, most shamefully, modern-day slavery, with six successful federal prosecutions of farm labor operations for servitude in Florida over the past decade, and a seventh just initiated, involving well over 1,000 workers and more than a dozen farm employers…”

Click here to read the petition in its entirety and sign now.


As he has since his visit to Immokalee, Sen. Sanders led the way…

… followed by his fellow lawmakers…

… and representatives of the many human rights, religious, student, and labor organizations gathered there in solidarity, including, among others: The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the National Economic and Social Rights Initiative, Sojourners, United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), the Organic Consumers Association, the Break the Chains Campaign, National Farm Worker Ministry, Jobs with Justice, the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the United Workers Association (UWA), Pax Cristi, and many more…

… including long-time friend and ally of the CIW, Willie Baptist, representing the Poverty Institute at Union Theological Seminary, one of the most storied institutions of faith-based support for civil and human rights in the country.

The ceremony ended with two petitions against slavery and exploitation stacked on a table — separated by some loose papers and 200 years of history. On the bottom, a photocopy of signatures collected by early abolitionists against 19th century slavery. On top, signatures gathered on this day against a modern form of slavery — forced labor that, incredibly, still puts produce on grocery shelves and restaurant tables across the country.


And though the ceremony was over, the work of the CIW delegation was not, as they continued to meet with lawmakers and allied organizations based in the nation’s capital, gaining still more support for the new petition campaign. Here, Rep. Raul Grijalva of Arizona adds his name to the petition.

Stay tuned as the campaign continues to grow and gather steam in churches and union halls, on campuses and in communities across the country on its way to the April 28th delivery at Burger King headquarters in Miami!