Inspired by the participation of Florida faith leaders and congregants in last months’ Fast for Fair Food, the Florida Council of Churches has issued a call for people of good will to choose a day during this Holy Week to fast and pray “that Publix will affirm its better self to ‘do the right thing.'” They have even set up a page for people to send letters to Publix CEO Ed Crenshaw explaining why they are fasting this week for Fair Food!
The call to action reads, in part:
| Our families in Florida’s fields often work in harsh conditions for poverty wages. The tomatoes we buy at the grocery store are a product of human exploitation. A penny per pound more for picked tomatoes changes their lives dramatically. As part of the Fair Food Program, retailers who agree to pay the premium increase the real income of farmworker families for the first time since the late 70’s. Moreover, by conditioning their purchases on compliance with the Fair Food Code of Conduct in the fields, they ensure safe and respectful working conditions for men and women in the fields.
Farmworkers have asked Publix to join the Fair Food Campaign but Publix has yet to see the wisdom and righteousness for doing so. The week of March 5, sixty farmworkers and allies fasted for six days in prayer for Publix to join the campaign. The company still refuses and misunderstands the issues. Please select a day during Holy Week, April 1-7, to fast on your own in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the field and in prayer that Publix will affirm its better self to “do the right thing,” as its founder George Jenkins advocated. Let Publix know you are fasting in solidarity with the farmworkers and in prayer for its own higher calling. Write them a letter to Publix explaining why you’re fasting and complete the online form to get started. read more |
Also from the Publix campaign… Buoyed by their community’s strong presence in last month’s Fast — and especially in the final day’s procession and closing ceremony — over 100 Fair Food allies from Miami turned out to join farmworkers and their families from Immokalee in protesting the grand opening of a Publix store on Miami’s Biscayne Boulevard this past Saturday!
The protest was covered by the AP (“Farmworkers, students protest outside Miami Publix,” 4/1/12), and the story was picked up story was picked up in Miami and the Tampa Bay area:
| Farmworkers, students and community leaders are protesting Publix’s refusal to participate in a program that helps raise the wages of Florida tomato pickers.
Protesters gathered outside the opening of a new Publix in Miami Saturday. They chanted, held signs, and a delegation went inside to speak with the store management and deliver letters from students. The protest took place just three weeks after farmworkers and religious leaders held a six-day fast in central Florida. The activists want Publix to pay growers a penny more per pound of tomatoes. The extra pennies would then be passed to the workers. |
The continuing refusal of Publix to pay a small premium for their Florida tomatoes — included in the price of tomatoes, paid to the growers and then distributed by the growers to farmworkers as part of standard payroll procedures — continues to baffle and frustrate farmworkers and consumers alike, as seen in our last update. This refusal and its broader implications were powerfully addressed in the pages of the Orlando Sentinel in an article that we call to your attention today in case it was overlooked in the flurry of Fast coverage (“Ethel Kennedy joins workers seeking wage hike,” 3/10/12):
| In a statement, Publix said it was more than willing to pay more but isn’t in the habit of paying the workers of other companies directly.
But one of the attendees— former New York State Supreme Court Judge Laura Safer Espinoza — said Saturday that the company’s response is disingenuous. “No corporate buyer pays a farmworker directly. They pay the sellers, and that premium gets passed down the supply chain to the workers,” said Espinoza, who is also the executive director of the Fair Food Standards Council, the independent compliance organization that monitors the corporate agreement. Farmworkers are paid about 50 cents per bucket and to make minimum wage, they must pick more than two tons of tomatoes a day. The extra penny, Espinoza said, is not going to push the worker up to middle class “but it is the different between suffering and not suffering.” The premium is folded into the purchase price that corporate buyers have agreed to pay participating growers. “I’m assuming that [Publix] is saying that as long as they can purchase a cheaper tomato, that is what they are going to do,” she said. “They are not willing to rectify a historic injustice to the people who pick the food we buy and put on our tables.” read more |
Check back soon for more from the Campaign for Fair Food, including a closer look at Chipotle’s cold shoulder to the Fair Food Program!