http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48744073_members-congress-afl-cio-rfk-center-back-petition-By admin - Posted on March 14th, 2008
WASHINGTON, March 13 – U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Assistant Majority Leader Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) as well as AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, RFK Center Director Monika Kalra Varma today joined the Coalition of Immokalee Workers at a press conference to support a nationwide petition drive on behalf of Florida farm workers.
“Tomato pickers in Florida are working twelve hours days in terrible conditions for substandard wages and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange refuse to admit there is any problem,” said Durbin. “Senator Sanders and I disagree. And in our meeting with the Growers Exchange Tuesday night, we made it very clear that we going to stand up for the tomato pickers. The Growers Exchange refused to even consider any change in compensation or living conditions.”
Sanders said: “As someone who represents Vermont, the first state in the United States to outlaw slavery, it is almost incomprehensible to me that we are standing here today -- at the beginning of the 21st century -- holding a press conference to bring attention to the fact that workers in the tomato fields of Florida are working in desperate conditions, conditions that in some cases are so extreme that even the Bush Administration has brought slavery charges. This is a disgrace and an outrage that cannot be allowed to continue.
“When we talk about the race to the bottom in America, it is clear the tomato pickers in Immokalee are the bottom. They are workers who are ruthlessly exploited and have no rights. This is a situation that should not continue in America and should be changed.”
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers has launched the petition drive to insist that the food industry improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers. Recent reports suggest that their pay has not increased in the past two decades and that living conditions of local workers are among the worst in the agriculture industry. Senator Sanders visited Florida in January to investigate conditions on tomato farms. While he was there, a federal grand jury indicted six people for enslaving farm workers. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee tentatively scheduled a hearing in mid-April on working conditions on the farms.
Senators Durbin and Sanders also sent letters today, along with Senators Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), to seven of the largest grocery and food service companies urging them to participate in a proposed initiative to increase the per bushel piece rate that tomato workers in Immokalee, Florida are paid. Today’s letter was sent to Winn Dixie, Kroger, Publix, Safeway, SUPERVALU, SYSCO, US Food Service, and Wal-Mart.
FULL story at link.