Slavery still a prominent practice in U.S. - Opinion

Sunkyo Lee
Issue date: 4/23/10

What comes to your mind when you hear "fair-trade goods"? You might think of what fair trade works against - the coffee, chocolate and clothing industries that treat workers unfairly. Well, add products like oranges and tomatoes farmed in Florida, right here in the United States, to the list of goods produced through extreme exploitation. Some of those tomato slices you all see and put on your sandwiches are products of modern-day slavery.

In fact, the U.S. Supreme Court's most recently tried case of slavery, U.S. v. Navarrete in 2008, found Florida employers guilty of beating, threatening and locking up their workers, and holding them in involuntary servitude. Even in our politcally correct age, it appears there is slavery in Florida. Florida farmworkers are victims of "modern-day slavery," forced to work under sweatshop conditions and deprived of basic labor rights. According to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a community-based worker organization in Immokalee, Fla., Florida tomato pickers earn about 45 cents per 32-pound bucket of tomatoes. This rate hasn't changed much since 1978. This means that at today's rate, workers have to pick more than 2.5 tons of tomatoes just to earn Florida's minimum wage for a 10-hour work day. Workers can't even afford the time to wash their pesticide-soaked hands before eating lunch - the lunch they packed at 5 a.m. to begin a day where work is not guaranteed, respect is denied and slavery is a reality.

At this point, one might wonder, "What about minimum-wage laws and labor unions? Can't Florida's farmworkers plea to the law or organize a union to raise their wages and working conditions?" The appalling truth is that basic labor rights - such as a minimum wage, the right to organize and collectively bargain and the right to overtime pay - do not apply to U.S. farmworkers, because of the intentional exclusion of farmworkers from key New Deal reform measures, like the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

To improve the situation, the CIW has led a boycott of big food corporations such as Taco Bell, McDonald's and Burger King since 2001. They've organized to demand that the corporations buy tomatoes from companies that pay the workers just a penny more per pound, almost doubling the workers' pay from 40 cents per 32-pound bucket of tomatoes to 72 cents per bucket. Perseverance of CIW and its allies, such as Student/Farmworker Alliance, has yielded success; Yum Brands (owner of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and others), McDonald's and Burger King have signed agreements that promise to pay a penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes for companies and participate in collaborative efforts to improve the farmworkers' working conditions.

But the campaign is far from over. The SFA and CIW are working with college serveries and grocery stores to make sure all major buyers pay fair wages and respect basic human rights. You can contribute to the campaign by asking the Housing and Dining department to demand Houston Avocado, the main Rice produce provider, to buy tomatoes from companies that entered the agreement with CIW. Rice For Peace, a student organization promoting social justice, is also allying with CIW and SFA to pressure Kroger to sign the agreement. Check out the fair food campaigns and start demanding; visit www.ciw-online.org for more information.

Sunkyo Lee is a Duncan College freshman. Richard Treadwell, a Baker College senior, contributed to this column.

Slavery still a prominent practice in U.S. - Opinion