Antonio
Martinez stood in the hot sun, exhausted from a cross-country journey, and
waited. Just 21 years old, he had traveled from Mexico to the U.S. with the
promise of a well-paid construction job in California. But now he stood in a
field in central Florida, listening to one man pay another man $500 to own him.
“I realized I
had been sold like an animal without any compassion," Antonio thought at
the time, more than 10 years ago.
He was right.
In modern times, in the United States, Antonio had been sold into slavery in
Florida's tomato fields.
IMMOKALEE: A STORY OF SLAVERY AND FREEDOM
Antonio is not
alone
Unfortunately,
Antonio’s case is not an isolated one. Many enslaved farmworkers in Florida
pick the tomatoes that end up on sliced onto sandwiches, mixed into salads and
stacked on supermarket shelves across the country. Over the last decade, the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers, an award-winning farmworker advocacy
organization, has identified more than 1,200 victims of human trafficking
picking produce in Florida's fields.
These slaves
often work for 10-12 hours a day, seven days a week. They are kept in crampt
and dirty trailers, constantly monitored, and have wages garnished to pay a
debt invented by the trafficker to keep victims enslaved. Many victims face
threats to themselves or their families, regular beatings, sexual harassment
and rape. They can't leave, can't seek help. They are in every way trapped.
Exploitation in
the tomato industry isn't just the work of a handful of immoral individuals –
it's the result of a supply chain which is set up to support the exploitation
of the very people who keep it running.
Slavery’s
connections to products you buy
Tomato pickers
in Florida are paid less than two pennies for each pound of tomatoes they pick.
That's the same pound you buy at the grocery store for anywhere between $1.50
and $4.00, depending on location and season. It's a poverty-inducing wage that
has diminished in real value since the 1970s, even as the retail price of
tomatoes has increased.
Here's what
happens in the supply chain: major corporate buyers such as supermarkets, fast
food chains and food service companies regularly purchase a massive amount of
produce. Their huge purchases allow these companies to leverage their buying
power and demand the lowest possible prices from tomato growers. This, in turn,
exerts a powerful downward pressure on wages and working conditions in tomato
suppliers' operations.
The result of
this dynamic is thousands of workers like Antonio was – exploited, enslaved or
held in debt bondage so growers can eke out a few more pennies and meet the
major companies' bargain basement expectations. It's a dynamic that has existed
for decades. But over the past few years, one grassroots organization has
started to challenge the big buyers. And they're winning.
The Campaign
for Fair Food
To help fight
the rampant human trafficking and other injustices in the tomato industry, The
Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) launched the Campaign for Fair Food in
2001. Their goal is to reverse the trend that exploits workers by harnessing
the purchasing power of the food industry for the betterment of farmworker
wages and working conditions. Over the past decade, they've made major headway.
CIW has
succeeded in getting Taco Bell, McDonald's, Subway and Burger King to support
raising farmworker wages by a penny-per-pound and implementing protections
against human trafficking, sexual harassment, and other forms of exploitation.
They've also convinced major food service companies, including Aramark and
Sodexo, as well as the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, the largest tomato
grower organization in Florida, to do the same. Now, they’re turning their
attention to supermarkets (Whole Foods has supported CIW since 2008.)
ALSO SEE: Victory over Taco Bell
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