Another report of slavery in Florida’s agricultural industry, this time among workers in the white potato and cabbage fields of northern Florida, recently hit news stands across the country. The case was initially reported to federal authorities by the CIW.
From the widely published AP report:
“‘The coalition was contacted by workers at the camp’, said Laura Germino, a leader of the group. The coalition has aided authorities in the prosecution of five previous cases of farmworker slavery in Florida in recent years…’We’ve seen U.S. citizens held in slavery, permanent residents, undocumented workers. It shows what is necessary for slavery to take root is not, say, an immigrant work force but conditions where other labor violations are already occurring,’ Germino said. ‘You no longer will have slavery if you eliminate the conditions that allow it to take place.'”
Click here to read the full AP story, “Homeless were lured into servitude, reports say“, which ran in newspapers from the Guardian of London to the New York TImes.