foodworkers

Shortly after garnering support from two growers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has begun pressuring Publix Super Markets Inc., Lakeland, Fla., to participate in deals to increase pay for Florida tomato workers.

The coalition (CIW) started a letter-writing campaign to convince Publix to pay its farmworkers an additional penny per-pound.

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Here's another modest coup for Florida's tomato pickers. Two Florida farms -- Lady Moon Farms outside Punta Gorda and Alderman Farms, both medium-sized family farms that sell organic produce -- agreed to help increase the wages of the state's tomato pickers in a deal with a farmworker advocacy group and upscale Whole Foods Market.

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By Sarah Newman, AlterNet.

"The little strawberry I'm munching is part of a bigger story that begins in the fields and ends on your plate. It's the story of a lucrative industry that offers consumers a commodity at a low-cost but with high consequences.

"Forming the backbone of this industry are the oft-forgotten armies of farmworkers who travel California's freeway arteries to plant and harvest crops in every corner of this region. The policies that oppress the 2 million people who grow our food betray its true costs."

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First, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers took on fast food.

Then came natural food.

Now, it's targeting campus and corporate food, with a powerful new ally pledging support - and dollars - to the group's Campaign for Fair Food.

California-based Bon Appetit Management, one of the country's biggest food service companies, has agreed to pay a penny more per pound for Florida tomatoes and to adhere to a strict code of conduct - as have McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods Markets and others.

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IMMOKALEE, Fla. - March 26 - The Student/Farmworker Alliance (SFA) announces today a major new phase in the Campaign for Fair Food, launching an effort to educate and mobilize students across the U.S. around the role of food service industry leaders Aramark, Compass and Sodexo in perpetuating farmworker poverty and human rights abuses. The SFA is calling on these three corporations to follow the example of other food industry leaders by partnering with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to directly improve wages and working conditions for Florida tomato pickers.

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