by Amanda Kloer · March 21, 2011
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) are taking their mobile modern-day slavery museum on tour this week, and they're bringing over 30,000 Change.org members with them -- via petition. The museum has been working its way up from Florida, through Georgia, and next into Tennessee, where it will conclude its tour at a Publix in Nashville. And there, hundreds of farmworker advocates and the voices of tens of thousands of Change.org members will ask Publix to finally support fair food.
Despite a strong turn-out at a recent CIW-organized protest at Publix headquarters in Tampa, Florida, the company has yet to respond to growing customer demands that they work with the CIW and agree to raise farmworker wages and prevent serious human rights abuses in the industry. Publix has taken the attitude that any abuse or exploitation that goes into producing the food they sell isn't their "business." And they don't seem to care if they're profiting from modern-day slavery.
So CIW is bringing the reality of human trafficking to them, in the form of the Florida Modern-Day Slavery Museum. Touring the museum is at the same time fascinating and heart-wrenching. It consists of a cargo truck outfitted as an exact replica of one inside which Florida tomato industry workers were held in slavery in 2008. Among the exhibits are a demonstration of the conditions the enslaved workers faced, as well as the strenuous work and low wages most workers in the industry experience.
Armed with both the reality of slavery and the signatures of over 30,000 Change.org member, this coming Saturday CIW will ask Publix yet again to do their part to fight serious human rights abuses. You can support their efforts by signing this petition and sharing it with your friends. And if you live in the South, catch up with them on their tour and tell Publix yourself that helping prevent human trafficking in the tomato industry is their business.
Photo credit: hyku
Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic RELATED PETITION
Source: news.change.org/
Farmworker Advocates Take Over 30,000 Change.org Members on Tour | Change.org News
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