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On Friday the Coalition of Immokalee Workers hosted the Semi-centennial Commemoration of 'Harvest of Shame' at its community center in Immokalee. Partly filmed in Immokalee, the 1960 documentary was Edward R. Murrow's legendary final broadcast for CBS and exposed the desperate plight of farmworkers. More than 75 people turned out for the open house portion of the event. It included an informal walk-through of the Community Center as well a chance to view the Florida Modern-day Slavery Museum, which is a trucked-in exhibit recently set up on the National Mall and at the U.S. State Department for the release of its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Cecile Wang, 70, tries her hand at lifting a tomato bucket during the Coalition of Immokalee Workers' Semi-centennial Commemoration of 'Harvest of Shame' at its community center on Friday. Partly filmed in Immokalee, the 1960 documentary was Edward R. Murrow's legendary final broadcast for CBS and exposed the desperate plight of farmworkers. More than 75 people turned out for the open house portion of the event. It included an informal walk-through of the Community Center as well a chance to view the Florida Modern-day Slavery Museum, which is a trucked-in exhibit recently set up on the National Mall and at the U.S. State Department for the release of its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report.
On Friday the Coalition of Immokalee Workers hosted the Semi-centennial Commemoration of 'Harvest of Shame' at its community center in Immokalee. Partly filmed in Immokalee, the 1960 documentary was Edward R. Murrow's legendary final broadcast for CBS and exposed the desperate plight of farmworkers. More than 75 people turned out for the open house portion of the event. It included an informal walk-through of the Community Center as well a chance to view the Florida Modern-day Slavery Museum, which is a trucked-in exhibit recently set up on the National Mall and at the U.S. State Department for the release of its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report.
NAPLES — Fifty years after the country first saw the plight of migrant farmworkers, the harvest of shame is slowly becoming a harvest of hope.
On Friday, a half-century to the day after its initial airing, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers hosted the Semi-centennial Commemoration of ‘Harvest of Shame’ at its community center in Immokalee.
Partly filmed in Immokalee, the 1960 documentary was Edward R. Murrow’s legendary final broadcast for CBS and exposed the desperate plight of farmworkers.
More than 75 people turned out for the open house portion of the event. It included an informal walk-through of the Community Center as well a chance to view the Florida Modern-day Slavery Museum, which is an trucked-in exhibit recently set up on the National Mall and at the U.S. State Department for the release of its 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report.
The commemoration program also included a screening of segments of ‘Harvest of Shame’, music and food for guests.
“My gosh! It is very heavy,” said Collier resident Cecile Wang, 70, while looking over part of the exhibit, which has visitors try their hand at lifting a full tomato bucket like the ones migrant workers fill daily.
Yet Wang said what truly hit home was the truck portion of the museum. The truck is a replica of the actual cargo truck used to hold migrant workers against their will in 2007.
“I found it very depressing, but it’s good that we are exposed to this, so people know that it exists…. It was an eye opener,” said Wang adding that she attended the event because she is interested in what the farm workers have to contend with and is in solidarity with them.
The sentiment was shared by Lee resident Melinda Pensinger, who learned of Friday’s event through an e-mail list.
“It’s just incredible that this is still happening,” said Pensinger, 51, after touring the museum. “It doesn’t seem like something that would happen in this day and age.”
CIW president Lucas Benitez said he’s glad that visitors are getting to see the true history of America’s agriculture industry from slavery and share cropping, to migrant workers and modern day human slavery.
Nevertheless, Benitez said the museum’s last panel now shows the next part of the story.
“Before reaching the 50 year anniversary, we reached an accord with the Florida Tomato Exchange, Pacific Tomato Growers and Six Ls,” Benitez said.
On Nov. 16, the leaders of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange shook hands and signed an agreement they described as nothing short of historic. Thirteen growers representing about 90 percent of Florida’s tomato industry are participating in the agreement. They will pass along an extra penny-per-pound paid by participating restaurants and retailers to farmworkers to boost their wages.
As part of the agreement, Benitez said the coalition is working with the growers to improve working conditions for farmworkers and end such abuses as sexual harassment, child labor and slavery in the fields.
The new partnership builds on fair food agreements the coalition signed with two of the state’s largest tomato growers last month, Pacific Tomato Growers and Six Ls. Under those two agreements, 1,000 workers have already received training from the coalition’s staff to better understand their rights to be protected and to have their voices heard on the job.
It also ends the practice of requiring workers to overfill buckets so that they have to pick about 35 pounds of tomatoes to get paid for 32 pounds, Benitez said.
“I think that it’s the start of a new era- ‘Una cosecha de Esperanza’... A ‘Harvest of Hope’ for thousands of workers,” Benitez said. “The story can’t be erased, because it’s what the industry has been like. But from now on, we begin to write a new story in the industry here in Florida and in the whole East Coast.”
That new chapter also includes the coalition’s ongoing feud with Publix Supermarkets, which has refused to sign on to the extra penny per pound accord.
To learn more about the original ‘Harvest of Shame’ documentary and get a look at where the industry is 50 years later visit http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/11/24/eveningnews/main7087361.shtml.
Source: Naples Daily News
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2010/nov/26/immokalee-commemorates-1960-docu-harvest-shame/
