Here it is, your 11th hour call to action to join us tomorrow for the big “Walk for Farmworker Justice” in Lakeland!

Courtesy of Robyn Blumner, St. Petersburg Times (from an online op/ed to appear in tomorrow’s paper entitled, “Hey, Publix, pony up a penny per pound”):

“… Publix has taken a ‘talk to the hand’ approach. Corporate spokeswoman Shannon Patten says that the company won’t get involved in ‘a labor dispute between the farmworker and farmer.’

Even after it was reported that two of the farms Publix has bought tomatoes from, Pacific Tomato Growers and Six L’s, used bosses who were convicted of enslaving farmworkers from Mexico and Guatemala — holding them captive and brutalizing them — Publix does little more than shrug.

Patten says ‘nobody’s in favor of slavery,’ as if this absolves the company of its duty to reject suppliers who employ shockingly abusive labor tactics.

Publix uses its collective buying power to negotiate low tomato prices with growers but refuses to unleash some of that corporate might to help workers who toil day after day in the withering Florida sun for the same per-bucket wage their parents earned.

When Patten says ‘we are a caring company’ she must mean that it cares about profits, not people.

The piece ends:

Today [Sunday], the Coalition of Immokalee Workers will hold a protest at a Publix supermarket in Lakeland, near Publix corporate headquarters. Similar protests have been held recently at Publix supermarkets around the state. Farmworkers and their supporters hold signs that say “Exploitation: It’s What’s for Dinner” and other clever slogans.

Who knows if this will persuade the corporate suits.

What I do know is I often pay $1.50 or more for a pound of tomatoes at Publix. Another penny isn’t a big deal to me. I doubt it means much to Publix.

But to some of the nation’s lowest paid workers, that penny can change their lives.

Read the op/ed in its entirety here. And click here to see how you can join us tomorrow in Lakeland.