The Beginning of a New Day in Immokalee
By Rev. Schaunel Steinnagel
Hunger Action Enabler, Presbytery of Philadelphia
From September 15-18, I had the tremendous opportunity to travel to Fort Meyers and Immokalee, in southwest Florida, and learn first-hand about the situation faced by tomato pickers there. Immokalee has been called “America’s Tomato Capitol,” because if you have eaten a tomato in the winter, chances are, it was picked in or around Immokalee. We are in a relationship with the people in Immokalee, every time we eat a tomato that they have picked. In response to injustices in those fields, Presbyterians are among people of faith who are being asked to do any of the following things:
· Start a conversation with their grocery store’s manager about where their tomatoes are coming from;
· Sign and mail a postcard to a grocery store CEO, asking them to work with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers;
· Pray with and for the tomato pickers for intervention and justice.
There are exciting developments to report from the fields of Immokalee, but for a long time, tomato pickers have had to work in virtual sweatshop conditions, in the fields. The lectionary reading for Sunday, September 18 was Jesus’ parable of day laborers waiting to be picked up to go work in the vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16), and far from fiction, in Immokalee, there is a central parking lot, where each day, bus drivers get to choose which men and women they will take to work in the tomato fields. Near the lot are trailers, near bare of furnishings, but the rent that is charged is an outrageous $500 per month, and ten men will live together, at $50 each per month. At the extreme, nine cases of actual slavery have been prosecuted, in Florida’s fields, since 1997. For those not in slavery, there have been unpaid work hours, capricious employer requests, and unsafe working conditions, such as lack of water or shelter in heat and thunder storms.
Tomato pickers have organized themselves, in the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Through the years, CIW has chosen to concentrate on the issue of wages, stagnant for some 30 years at one penny per pound, because as horrible as housing and other conditions are, it is the wages, they feel, that can give them the opportunity to make more choices, about where they will live, about obtaining a bicycle or car to be able to “commute” to work and not be forced to live in strategically placed trailers, about how they will be able to take care of their families.
Since 2002, beginning with the endorsement of a boycott of Taco Bell restaurants, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been a supporter of the organizing for “Fair Food” by the CIW. Fair food refers to tomatoes that we know come from fair working conditions, similar to “fair trade” coffee and other items, which we may seek to buy.
The Taco Bell Boycott ended in 2006, with the signing of a landmark agreement, YUM! Inc., owner of Taco Bell, pledging to pay an extra penny per pound and support a Code of Conduct. Further organizing has brought on board McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods, and other companies, eventually bringing the total to nine restaurant and food companies. What is being hailed as a “new day” began in just this past year’s growing season, when the major grower companies agreed to implement the Code of Conduct and pass on the additional penny per pound: Now, workers can actually see in their pay checks the line items that represent additional income, when the tomatoes have been provided to any of the nine companies; they receive trainings on their rights as workers, on company time; they can clock-in on time clocks and be paid for all of the hours in the fields (rather than being required to show up in the wee hours of the morning, wait for fields to dry, and begin to be paid, when the picking begins); and being implemented is zero tolerance for sexual harassment, slavery, and other worker abuses.
What could stop such progress?! The Code of Conduct can only be as strong as the number of companies that agree to support it.
Currently, grocery store companies are the stopping place. Major grocery store companies have been refusing to dialogue or sign the Code of Conduct with the CIW. Trader Joe’s is one such company. Despite an image of social responsibility, treatment of workers in the fields has not made it to executive consciousness. Ahold, a Dutch company, which owns Giant and Stop & Shop grocery stores and is actually the biggest grocery store company in the northeastern United States, is another important company, from which support of the Immokalee workers is desired, but not yet forthcoming. Grocery stores are big sellers of tomatoes and therefore important targets.
If we want to fight hunger, then we need to be concerned about what people are being paid. If we want to know where our own food is coming from, then we need to pay attention to the conditions facing farmworkers. If we read Genesis 1, reminded that each person alive in the world gives us an image of God, then we cannot deny them their rights.
Presbyterian partners are being asked to do a couple of good things, in support of the CIW.
First, if you shop at a Trader Joe’s or an Ahold grocery store, download, print, and sign a Manager’s letter, and bring it to the Manager of the store, when you shop. Grocery store manager’s letters are available at the Presbyterian Church’s Fair Food website: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/fairfood/take-action-fair-food/#meet. If the manager provides you with any sort of written response, would you please share it with me? There may be ways to continue the conversation!
Second, postcards, to Mr. Dan Bane, CEO of Trader Joe’s, and Mr. Lawrence Benjamin, COO of Ahold USA, are available for you to sign and mail. There will be postcards available around Ardmore Presbyterian Church, approved by the Mission Awareness Committee. Take one! They will remind the reader of “sub-poverty wages…no read raise in 30 years…cases of modern-day slavery uncovered since 1997.” Such shopper advocacy can be very influential.
Third, this movement has been a journey by the CIW for the long haul, so please pray for them, and for justice. Some people are choosing to pray while they are in the produce section of their supermarkets, when they find themselves in the closest relationship with the workers.
Finally, if you have further questions or would like to know how else you might be involved, please speak with me, because lots of things are happening, and there is opportunity for even more engagement!
