Farmworkers, allies celebrate Labor Day with bike tour in Sarasota, FL, to draw attention to grocery giant’s continued inaction following latest slavery conviction…
This Labor Day, at the invitation of allies at the First Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, several farmworkers from Immokalee along with allies from Interfaith Action ventured two hours north to take part in a unique demonstration — a “Labor Day Freedom Ride”! Click here to check out a great video report on the ride, (from the Sarasota Herald Tribune).
The ride was a huge success. Across the state, CIW allies have been launching delegations to their local Publix groceries, asking to speak with managers about the company´s deafening silence in response to the human rights crisis in Florida´s tomato fields. What made the Labor Day action in Sarasota special, however, is that this delegation was done by bicycle, with almost two dozen people — several members of the First Presbyterian Church, students from New College and deejays from community radio station WSLR, among others — riding 10 miles to deliver letters to managers at Publix stores.
The ride started in the church parking lot, where Leonel Perez of the CIW explained to participants the significance of the agreements reached by the CIW with food industry leaders. He told those gathered about the unimaginable brutality of the recently prosecuted slavery operation, where farmworkers in Immokalee were locked in box trucks, beaten, stabbed, and physically restrained by their crewleaders. The enslaved men were taken to work on area tomato farms, including Florida tomato industry leaders Six L´s and Pacific.
In response, Whole Foods, who has signed an agreement with the CIW, moved to cut their purchases from Six L´s and Pacific, in keeping with the zero-tolerance provisions of the code of conduct created jointly with the CIW.
Publix, however — as revealed in the produce section of its Longboat Key location, the final destination of the intrepid Labor Day bike delegation — continues to purchase tomatoes from both Six L´s and Pacific (Leonel Perez of the CIW holds cartons of Six L’s and Pacific tomatoes, above).
For more background on this developing campaign, click here. And stay tuned in the weeks ahead as plans for an action-packed fall come into focus!
Also… CIW makes the pages of the Huffington Post (“Labor Day Pains”, 9/7/09). Here’s an excerpt:
“… We want food that’s healthy, safe, delicious, responsibly sourced and, everybody’s favorite buzzword, sustainable. Sustainability means committing to practices that help the environment flourish, now and for generations to come. The immigrant labor force caring for and harvesting our food deserves the same treatment. What’s the good of clean, organic food if it’s harvested in filthy conditions? Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser has said, ‘If there are organic tomatoes being picked by indentured servants, I’d rather not have the organic tomato.'”