Protest targets Publix

Nely Rodriguez marches with willful conviction through the rain, chanting with frustration as she joins dozens of others in the protest against Publix's corporate office in Lakeland.

Rodriguez is a farm worker and a single mother of two who had to leave her home because she was unable to afford the rent.

Working 10 to 12 hours and getting paid 45 cents per bucket of tomatoes she picks isn't helping.

"We as workers have been paid 30 years with the same wage per bucket," Rodriguez said. "Right now, there are a lot of people, co-workers that don't have enough to pay their rent. They're living on the fields."

On Sunday, Rodriguez joined an estimated 1,000 farm workers and supporters, including about 20 UCF students, in the culmination of a three-day march that started in Tampa.

After the march, protesters rallied against Publix's refusal to adopt the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Campaign for Fair Food for more than five hours.

The goal of the campaign is to increase tomato pickers' wages in Florida by requiring Publix to pay a penny-per-pound premium for tomatoes purchased, allowing a 1 cent wage increase per pound picked, and totaling 32 cents more per bucket of tomatoes.

CIW staff member Julia Perkins said Publix hasn't done enough.

"What we're asking them to do is to be a proactive partner in making sure that these kinds of abuses don't happen in their supply chain," Perkins said. "To make that happen, you need to have a partnership with the workers. An independent place to register a complaint if there's something going on, where they don't have to worry about losing their job."

Florida tomato pickers earn an average of 45 cents per 32-pound bucket of tomatoes, a wage that has not changed since 1978. Workers must pick two and a half tons of tomatoes to earn Florida's equivalent minimum wage within a 10-hour work day, according to the CIW.

The campaign also demands a code of conduct to regulate working conditions and to avoid suppliers with abusive violations.

UCF freshman and history major Nicole Godreau finds motivation when she remembers the experiences a farm worker undertakes.

"One woman actually said that the patron didn't tell the farm workers that day that they were using pesticides, so [the farm workers] all started puking and passing out," said

Godreau, who attended the march. "After that, it was just like ‘We need to speak up, this is not OK,' so that just keeps me motivated to just keep fighting."

Lariza Garzon of the National Farmworker Ministry said the CIW has established contracts with Yum! Brands, the parent company of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver, A&W and KFC. Several other corporations, including McDonald's, Burger King, Whole Foods, Aramark, Subway and Compass Group have also signed a contract, according to a CIW release.

The CIW has not received a response from Publix yet, but Perkins said they will continue to enforce the campaign.

Junior Carolina Agudelo, a political science major and the treasurer of the Youth and Young Adult Network of the NFWM, marched to show solidarity against farm worker exploitation.

"Because of them is why we eat vegetables, because no one else will do what they do on the fields," Agudelo said. "I've spoken to a lot of them. They've all expressed how they get exploited, how their working conditions are so difficult. Many of them don't get breaks, how many times they put pesticides while they're still working, so many of them get skin infections."

The march was also organized to bring awareness to cases of modern-day slavery in south Florida. In one such case, charges were brought against the Navarrete family for enslaving Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants and forcing them into agricultural labor, according to a release by the U.S. Department of Justice. The workers were beaten, threatened, restrained and locked inside box trucks.

According to a CIW release, Publix continued to purchase produce from two farms — Six L's and Pacific — where slavery was discovered. Publix announced it suspended purchases from the two farms a few weeks ago.

"Publix has said this is a labor issue that they shouldn't get in the middle of, to keep it between the growers and the farm workers," Garzon said. "But the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their supporters say that's not true, because [Publix has] purchasing power.

They're ultimately the people that are responsible for the conditions of the workers."
Publix did not respond to phone calls in time for publication.

"What we're asking them to do is beyond just cutting their contracts. It's to sit down with the workers," Perkins said. "To sit down and have dialogue about how we can improve the conditions so that we don't have to have another slavery case come out that, inevitably, at this point, will before Publix really decides to do what they should in ensuring fair wages and working conditions for tomato pickers."

Still, for Rodriguez and many other farm workers, waiting on an answer isn't so easy.

Rodriguez said, like many farm worker mothers, she must ask for free food at a local church, but she can only do so twice a month. She said she does not like living from charity but has to provide her children with food.

"This message is for everyone so they can see the reality of farm workers," Rodriguez said. "For everyone who goes to the supermarkets to purchase fruit, they should think first about where it came from and in what conditions. This is what we want: To open people's conscience. I hope Publix sees this [protest] and it softens their hearts to take action."