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A delegation from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers recently took time during its "Northeast Tour for Fair Food" to visit The Nation offices in New York City. It was an honor to meet with them, to learn more about their work helping workers in the fields of Florida. We spent some time discussing how The Nation could continue to expose the working and living conditions of migrant workers and advocate for needed change.
Last Friday--just days after CIW's visit--a Florida judge rendered his sentence on the state's most recent slavery case. CIW had helped the Department of Justice investigate what Chief Assistant US Attorney Doug Molloy described as one of Southwest Florida's "biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever." There was shockingly little coverage of this outrage--even in Florida--where a slavery story should knock Governor Blagojevich right off the front pages. (The dedication of reporter Amy Bennett Williams of the Fort Myers News-Press is a notable exception.)
The Navarrete family had pleaded guilty to holding twelve men on their property from 2005 to 2007. They were beaten, chained and imprisoned in a truck, and forced to urinate and defecate in the corners. Two family members were sentenced to twelve years, and four were sentenced on lesser charges and will serve up to three years and ten months.
CIW worked with federal and local authorities during the prosecution and investigation as it has in seven Florida slavery cases over the past decade. Prior to escaping, the workers had listened to programming on labor rights on CIW's multilingual radio station--Radio Conciencia--which encouraged them that they would be able to find help if they escaped. Some of the workers who then did escape made their way to CIW for assistance.
While it's good to see some accountability for the practice of modern slavery, and the ongoing cooperation between CIW and prosecutors, the tolerance for slavery was all too evident in the wake of this trial. For one thing, Molloy told the Fort Myers News-Press, "We have a number of similar--and ongoing--investigations." He also said, "It doesn't help when people deny that [slavery] exists. That's like throwing gasoline on the fire."
But that's exactly what seems to be happening when it comes to the state government. Republican Governor Charlie Crist has remained silent on the issue of slavery and this sentencing--including not returning calls from The Nation--and his press secretary suggested that a reporter contact Terence McElroy, spokesman for the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services which oversees the states' farms and labor contractors. McElroy seemed to dismiss the significance of the case and the existence of slavery, saying, "... You're talking about maybe a case a year." After a public outcry-- including responses from former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, Amnesty International USA, Florida ACLU and the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights--McElroy attempted to clarify his statement but only made matters worse, describing slavery as "quite a rarity when a case pops up."
First off, slavery doesn't exactly lend itself to being exposed. When chained, beaten, shot at, and pistol-whipped--as has happened to many of the 1,000 victims in seven known slavery cases prosecuted in Florida over the past eleven years--it's difficult for victims to bring those crimes to the light of day. "So this is really the tip of the iceberg," CIW staff member Greg Asbed told me.
Also, McElroy is doing exactly what Molloy warns of by minimizing the problem. As Asbed said, "You know, if this were happening in McElroy's department he wouldn't say, 'Well, it's only one case annually of workers being forced to work at gunpoint for no pay...or it's only one murder...it's a rarity.' And you wouldn't have Governor Crist refusing to comment. It would be a huge story and they would be forced to deal with it. The fact is that those who minimize this problem see two types of human beings--people who they think are like them, and then people like these workers who they view as lesser human beings."
CIW sent an open letter to Governor Crist--which I signed along with Eric Schlosser, Frances Moore Lappe and a slew of human rights and labor lawyers and organizations--calling on him to renounce the comments made by McElroy; meet with CIW and federal officials who prosecute slavery; and demand that the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) allow the implementation of pay raises for workers that tomato buyers have already agreed to and are paying into escrow (see below)...which brings us to another recent victory for CIW.
Subway, the largest purchaser of tomatoes in the fast-food industry, agreed to a penny per pound pay raise for tomato workers. CIW had already struck similar deals with McDonald's, Taco Bell and Burger King after long, hard fought campaigns. While a penny per pound doesn't sound like a helluva lot, it results in about a 75 percent wage increase for these workers--from $10,000 annually to $17,000-- raising their living and working conditions and making them less vulnerable to those who would enslave them. Already, approximately $1 million is being held in escrow for the workers as they begin the second season with the deals in place.
As I have written previously, the only thing standing in the way of these workers and their million bucks-plus is the FTGE. The FTGE represents 90 percent of the state's growers and has threatened members who implement the penny per pound deals with fines of $100,000 for each worker benefiting from the pay raise. FTGE Executive Vice President Reggie Brown testified earlier this year at a Senate hearing chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders that these deals would result in buyers going to Mexico for their tomatoes. He's dropped that argument since it's the buyers themselves who are already agreeing to pay the workers the extra penny. But he continues to push a bogus legal argument--as the Miami Herald reported--that "they can't participate because of legal issues with a third party dictating the terms of its workers employment." (As Senator Sanders noted at the hearing on Capitol Hill, "I gather that McDonald's and [Taco Bell] have some money to hire some pretty good attorneys. You might want to reconsider the attorneys you are using and rethink this issue"; Sanders also presented Brown with a letter from twenty-six legal professors specializing in labor law, including antitrust dimensions of labor standards, writing that "the ostensible legal concerns of the Growers Exchange are utterly without merit.") It's outrageous to now read Brown feigning sympathy for the workers as he did to the Herald: "I just wish someone would be a little creative and find a way to get the money to the workers. We would like to see the worker paid, but we can't do it," he said.
As long as the FTGE continues to be obstructive, you can bet Senator Sanders will be on their case. In addition to his own fact-finding mission in the fields of Immokalee, and the hearing on the Hill, Sanders recently single-handedly blocked tomato growers from getting $100 million or so that they wanted to tuck away into a continuing resolution before Congress recessed for the election.
"The Senator had a problem with a government bailout for folks who wink at slavery and can't figure out a way to let other people pay their pickers a penny a pound more for their back-breaking labor," Senator Sanders' press secretary, Michael Briggs, told me.
Sanders has spoken out not only on the pay issue, working, and living conditions, but also about closing a loophole which allows growers to use independent labor contractors and escape any liability for the enslavement of workers who work their fields. McElroy claimed that no "legitimate grower" is involved with slavery, but in fact the Fort Myers News-Press reported that the victims in the latest slavery case worked on "farms owned by some of the state's major tomato producers: Immokalee-based Six L's and Pacific Tomato Growers in Palmetto."
Senator Sanders indicated in an e-mail to me yesterday that he's determined to stay on top of these human rights issues: "It is beyond comprehension that in the year 2008 slavery still exists in America. I look forward to working with the new administration and Congress to finally end the scourge of modern slavery in the tomato fields of Florida. I will certainly advocate that every aspect of the businesses of those engaged in or indirectly benefiting from these scandalous activities be gone over with a fine-tooth comb by appropriate federal officials."
As for CIW, in addition to its continued work to battle modern slavery, it's now turning its attention to signing penny per pound agreements with supermarket chains and food service companies. "With the agreement with Subway now done, the fast food industry in the main has now spoken, and they are clearly saying to the Florida tomato industry that it's time to turn the page. And so now we're turning to the supermarket and food service companies--like Kroger, Ahold, Safeway and Wal-Mart, and Sodexo and Aramark--and asking them, 'What are you waiting for? If you buy tomatoes and you're not looking to help improve conditions where they are picked, then you're part of the problem.'"
With a track record of successes, and congressional allies like Senator Sanders fighting on tomato workers' behalf in Washington, CIW will continue to play an invaluable role in improving the deplorable working and living conditions that give rise to modern slavery.
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Katrina vanden Heuvel
Thoughts on politics, current affairs, riffs and reflections on what’s in the news and what’s not--but should be.
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God, Katrina, give the "slavery" adjective a rest, would you?
Anyway, Have a Merry Christmas
Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 12/23/2008 @ 2:09pm
Pay no attention to Mr. Thornton, Katrina. Don't EVER give it a rest and don't ever stop writing about it until it's abolished. Thanks for everything you've done so far.
Posted by FloridaGram at 12/23/2008 @ 2:26pm
Chip Thornton posts fairly regularly here, and yes, his credibility is virtually nil --I can't recall a single original, or even vaguely interesting, post of his.
I'd dub him "The Shyster from Reisterstown", but that would be giving him far to much credibility.
:D
Keep up the excellent work, Ms. vanden Heuvel.
Posted by b_kool_66 at 12/23/2008 @ 3:29pm
<i>Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 12/23/2008 @ 2:09pm </i>
I mean, when you have people in chains working at gunpoint, that sounds like the definition of slavery. When you have less-than-optimum wages, that's obviously much harder to justify using "slavery" for, but at least some of the cases Katrina describes clearly fit the slavery mold.
BTW, while we're on the slavery topic, I have to make my plug for the movie "Amazing Grace," which describes the movement in Britain back in the 18th century to abolish the slave trade. It's fantastic stuff, and points out how easy blatant injustices can be to overlook or dismiss. Very neat story, well-done, etc.
Posted by Thrawn at 12/23/2008 @ 3:43pm
I tell you nothing much has changed here in the good old south....this part of the country is hell bent on sticking to the past and they don't want anybody or anything to ever change that. I have lived in several different states and the south really takes some beating, in some places it is so far behind the times it's like you are in a time warp. Each time you think the country has moved forward you hear of something like this and you just find it incomprehensible that these kind of folks still exist!!!
Posted by Caj at 12/23/2008 @ 6:03pm
If Bush had done his job and enforced the laws already on the books these past 8 years we may have less illegal immigration!!!! All the folks on the right keep wanting to blame the Dem congress, who have only been in power for the past 2 years...and pray who has been in charge the past 8!!!! No, they must take responsibility for this incompetent President and his stupid decisions over the years, but I'm sure that is not how he is viewed by them at all...by most he's the best President ever....and they are from what planet we wonder!!!!
Posted by Caj at 12/24/2008 @ 08:42am
Merry Christmas, all or Happy Hannukah, whichever may apply.
Posted by CHIP THORNTON at 12/24/2008 @ 12:50pm
If KVH wants to be taken seriously on slavery, she should do a story at the source of slavery where it is.... In Africa, the Islamic world and in the welfare department of the US.
This nothing more than a rehash of the demand to pay illegals more money and unionize them....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Posted by YourJomamma at 12/25/2008 @ 01:42am
Hey Chip! You didn't wish me a Happy Winter Soltice????? Which is what my family celebrates this time of year.
Posted by ganddw42 at 12/25/2008 @ 09:48am
ublished: December 23, 2008
Wal-Mart said on Tuesday that it would pay at least $352 million, and possibly far more, to settle lawsuits across the country claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock. Several lawyers described it as the largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations.
The dozens of wage-and-hour suits against Wal-Mart accused the company and its managers of various illegal tactics. Those included forcing employees to work unpaid off the clock, erasing hours from time cards and preventing workers from taking lunch and other breaks that were promised by the company or guaranteed by state laws.
The settlement -- which wipes out all but 12 pending wage-and-hour lawsuits against Wal-Mart -- also gives the company a cleaner slate as a new administration enters the White House. President-elect Barack Obama has indicated he will make wage-and-hour enforcement a priority, and groups critical of Wal-Mart suggested that the company had reached the settlement to avoid becoming a target of stepped-up enforcement.
"Wal-Mart is scared with what they're going to face in an Obama administration," said David Nassar, of Wal-Mart Watch, a union-financed advocacy group. "You clean up your house before the in-laws come over. That's what they're trying to do."
Posted by crabwalk at 12/25/2008 @ 12:49pm
It is xmas, but I will not let that stop me from nominating JOMMAM, CHIP and comanche
ASSHOLES OF THE YEAR
Tell us again about the slavery in the welfare dept John. Tell us how welfare recipients are chained in vans overnight..
Tell us how they get shot at for "escaping welfare".
unions keep illegal aliens out of workplaces. I would think you would appreciate that. But no, you hate America and Americans.
No comments about the businesses that HIRE ILLEGALS and keep them enslaved from the "people" that want to kill for "freedoms"? Just attacks on slaves and those that freed them.
Exactly which "freedoms" are you folks "fighting" for if not the right to be free from slavery?
ASSHOLES
Posted by crabwalk at 12/25/2008 @ 12:55pm
Pharoah was only a good business man. Moses was a traitor, lazy and was probably in Egypt illegally.
---
Wait, they all voted democratic in the last electionl, maybe that is the reason! Posted by comanchenation at 12/23/2008 @ 8:21pm
Really, RIOKORESH? Do you think the people convicted of holding slaves voted for Barak Obama? Did the illegal aliens vote illegally, under the watch of Crist?
Where do you get this shit?
no wonder Islamists want to see you dead.
Posted by crabwalk at 12/25/2008 @ 1:01pm
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PROLETARIAT (PROLETARIAN-DICTATORSHIP) FORCE AND VIOLENCE USED IN THIS STAGE.
ONLY A VIOLENT, BLOODY REVOLUTION AND A CRUSH AND SMASH OF THE CAPITALIST-STATE REPLACED BY A PROLETARIAT-DICTATORSHIP COULD BE A SOCIALIST SYSTEM.
http://www.sinistra.net/lib/upt/compro/lipa/lipanbeboe.html#u4
Revisionism sought to spread throughout the ranks of the working class the firm conviction that it was not possible to overthrow the power of the capitalist class by force and, furthermore, that it was possible to realise socialism after conquering the executive organs of the state thru elections, by means of a majority in the representative institutions
Left Marxists were accused of a worship of violence, elevating it from a means to an end and invoking it almost sadistically even when it was possible to spare it and attain the same result in a peaceful way. But in the face of the eloquence of the historical developments this polemic soon unveiled its content. It was a mystique not so much of non-violence as it was an apology of the principles of the bourgeois order.
After the armed revolution triumphed in Leningrad over the resistance of both the Czarist regime and the Russian bourgeois class, the argument that it was not possible to conquer power with arms changed into the argument that it must not be done, even if it is possible. This was combined with the idiotic preaching of a general humanitarianism and social pacifism which of course repudiates the violence utilised for the victory of the working class revolutions, but does not denounce the violence used by the bourgeoisie for its historical revolutions, not even the extreme terroristic manifestations of this violence. Moreover, in all the controversial debates, in historical situations
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/25/2008 @ 1:47pm
AND THE TRUTH IS THAT IF USA DOESN'T BECOME SOCIALIST, USA WILL CONTINUE JUST THE WAY IT IS:
a small minority earning between 10,000 and 20,000 a month and a great majority earning less than 2000 a month (Mcdonalds, Wal-Mart workers, and oppressed immigrants)
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/25/2008 @ 1:50pm
HOW HYPOCRITE US GOVERNMENT IS IN TRYING TO HARASS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS !!
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS SHOULD KEEP INVADING USA !!
AS LONG AS USA INVADES OTHER COUNTRIES, I SUPPORT THE INVASION OF USA BY ILLEGAL ALIENS.
HOW THE HELL USA WANTS PEOPLE OF OTHER COUNTRIES TO ABIDE BY LAWS, IF US IMPERIAL GOVERNMEN INVADES AND BOMBS OTHER NATIONS.
I THINK US GOVERNMENT SHOULD STOP INVADING OTHER NATIONS FIRST, SO THAT IT COULD HAVE THE MORAL AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS.
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/25/2008 @ 1:57pm
marxist-socialist @ 1:50pm wrote:
<<<< a small minority earning between 10,000 and 20,000 a month and a great majority earning less than 2000 a month (Mcdonalds, Wal-Mart workers, and oppressed immigrants)>>>>
According to the census bureau the 2007 median annual household income rose to $50,233.00
That means half of all American households had incomes above $50,000.
Furthermore, I am told that if you remove teenagers living alone and in schools, and seniors, the median income rises to $75,000.
The median net worth of all U.S. households, is $100,894.
Posted by Hugo_Pirovano at 12/25/2008 @ 7:01pm
Marxist,
The thinking world rejected all that horseshot years ago and you have become what Marx has become.... A laughing stock.
Thanks for the yucks....,
Posted by YourJomamma at 12/25/2008 @ 9:41pm
HOW THE HELL USA WANTS PEOPLE OF OTHER COUNTRIES TO ABIDE BY LAWS, IF US IMPERIAL GOVERNMEN INVADES AND BOMBS OTHER NATIONS.
I THINK US GOVERNMENT SHOULD STOP INVADING OTHER NATIONS FIRST, SO THAT IT COULD HAVE THE MORAL AUTHORITY TO ENFORCE IMMIGRATION LAWS.
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/25/2008
I totally agree with you there..the US is too fond of barking out orders at other countries while they do as they like. There can't be one rule for the US and another one for other countries, that's our problem, I feel we like to be the "dictators" here and wasn't that our problem with Saddam....the fact he was a dictator!!!!
Posted by Caj at 12/26/2008 @ 08:27am
Posted by YourJomamma at 12/25/2008 @ 9:41pm |
The funny part is...
this guy is one of yours, spewing nonsense. ANd you take him seriously!!
HAR!
I have to believe that he reads the talking points of the repubs and comes here to regurgitate.
FACTCHECK has had a busy week debunking the myths of the right:
It's not true that unionized auto workers at Detroit's Big Three make more than $70 an hour, as claimed by some opponents of federal aid.
President-elect Obama never promised to seek a ban on all semi-automatic weapons, as claimed by some fearful gun owners.
And no, Obama did not propose a Gestapo-like civilian security force as claimed by a Republican member of Congress from Georgia and any number of overwrought bloggers.
Democrats in Congress are not discussing any plan to confiscate the assets in 401(k) retirement accounts, another falsehood spread about by chain e-mails and Internet postings.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did not demand a 757-size personal jet, a false claim resurrected when Democrats criticized Big Three executives for flying to D.C. on their own private jets to beg for aid.
And Pelosi's husband doesn't own a $17 million stake in a food company that she may (or may not) have tried to help with an exemption from a new minimum wage law.
Posted by crabwalk at 12/26/2008 @ 10:07am
Funny how the neo-cons attack Bush's Justice Dept , isn't it?
Almost as funny as them attacking the TSA, WHILE claiming that Chimpy McFlightsuit has kept them safe from terrorism.
-----Human Trafficking Awareness Partnerships.--
In June of 2004, a group of women on Sanibel Island, Florida, decided that they wanted to learn about human trafficking. The organization they belonged to, Zonta International, a worldwide organization of professional women and business executives with a mission of advancing the status of women worldwide was working on the issue in Bosnia-Herzegovina and they researched the issue to see if it existed in their community.
To their astonishment, they discovered that Florida had the second highest incidence of human trafficking in the nation and that it was a $32 billion dollar international criminal industry, second only to drug trafficking.
****Human trafficking can best be combated through public awareness and action. ****
NOT BY IGNORING THE PROBLEM OR BLAMING THE SLAVES, as the self described Christians here would have us do.!!!
Posted by crabwalk at 12/26/2008 @ 10:23am
Damn communists and their statues!!
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Freedom?
Liberty?
Just words to the cons. Words to be used to scare the sheep into war, but not to be used to actually grant someone freedom or liberty from slavery on the factory farms of FLorida. They freed the Iranian backed Shia from Uday Hussein, but will NOT free people that pick their tomatoes in Florida USA.
----
""Three men convicted of forcing 700 workers into slave labor in Florida's citrus groves drew prison sentences totaling 34 years and nine months Wednesday in addition to forfeiting $3 million in proceeds from their immigrant smuggling operation.
The presiding federal judge also criticized the citrus industry, calling the slavery convictions a sign of the larger problems in Florida's second-largest industry
'Others at a higher level of the fruit picking industry seem complicit in one way or another with how these activities occur, ' US District Judge K. Michael Moore said while handing down the sentences. 'I think there is a broader interest out there the government should look into as well...' "
Posted by crabwalk at 12/26/2008 @ 10:41am
Posted by crabwalk at 12/26/2008 @ 10:07am
We all can feel better now since you are obviously connected to the regime with all the facts..
So,then, we should hand over the cash to GM..since when buying a US car they are NOT paying salaries, health care, ect for over a million people not working, while not having to renegoiate with your beloved unions for any concessions from the 96,000 workers who are..so they are OK...
and this is just a start..wonder why congress is held in lower esteem than Bush.
I am glad Pelosi and her husband are "OK"..
I am glad our 401ks are off the tax radars for ever and we will be OK.
Your "facts" are just the thing the public should believe and concluded they will be OK.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzz.
Posted by YourJomamma at 12/26/2008 @ 10:58am
AT LEAST FEEL A BIT HAPPY WITH BARACK OBAMA AND JOE BIDEN.
However, we cannot feel already depressed and down with Obama. You people imagine if instead of Obama John Mccain and Sarah Palin would be our elected leaders? The evangelical zionist rednecks would be running while right now !!
Thank God that John Mccain and Palin didn't win the 2008 presidential elections. Because as bad and as capitalist as Obama is, a rejection and negation against Obama would've mean Mccain-Palin for 4 long years !!
HOWEVER !! HOWEVER !! hmmm however i am wrong at praising Obama bewcause Obama is appointing and naming Republican Party leaders in his cabinet. so really there would not be much difference between a Palin-Mccain goverment and a Obama-Biden gov.
.
.
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/26/2008 @ 11:17am
STOP BEING CAPITALISTS, STOP HATING MARX !!
THERE IS NOT A LAW IN USA THAT BANS MARX BOOKS !!
JUST GO TO BORDERS, AMAZON OR BARNES AND NOBLES AND BUY A COUPLE OF MARX BOOKS. OR DOWNLOAD HIS WORKS FROM THE INTERNET.
I DON'T REALLY UNDERSTAND WHAT MAGICAL FORCE IS BLOCKING AMERICAN PEOPLE FROM LOVING MARXIST, LEFTIS AND SOCIALIST IDEOLOGY.
BECAUSE THE COLLAPSE OF USA HAS BEEN CAUSED BY CAPITALISM, NOT BY SOCIALISM.
,
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/26/2008 @ 11:22am
Hugo_Pirovano: Become a socialist and reject capitalism which is the main cause of all world problems. if all americans earned 50,000 a year there wouldn't be poverty in this country. but statistic states that there are 40 millions americans in poverty and 80 millions earning low-wages, without health insurance and without any security of unspeakable terms.!!
The majority of Americans are living in a terrible situation.
USA is one of the poorest nations among all developed nations. The poors of Cuba and Venezuela get more dental, and health services, than the poor of USA.
Posted by marxist-socialist at 12/26/2008 @ 11:27am
When a country like the US bases a sizable part of its economy, I don't know maybe 30% of it (name at least 50% of the agriculture, all the hotels, a sizable fraction of restaurants and so), on labor paid with hunger salaries then we know that is not only unjustice "that claims to God" (as several Bible texts say) but such "economic growth" and bonanza is artificial. The bottom line: numbers for earnings look good for MacDonald or Wal Mart and the owners can celebrate with champagne not bought in WM, and filet mignon not bought in McD, but some 2 million people live at the edge of hunger. A system like this cannot sustain indefinitely. We are looking that what used to be the greatest strength of this country: its internal market (responsible for 70% of the economic output), is crumbling. After all, if we eliminate illegal alien labor, which company will make money in this country -except some banks and monopolies??.
We are still basically a Christian nation. I invite the people reaping of on this situation, to read again the Epulon-Lazarus parable. Maybe someday they will understand, in the mean time how about Merry Christmas?
Posted by Frank42 at 12/28/2008 @ 01:43am
Posted by crabwalk at 12/26/2008 @ 10:07am
I think CRAB is right there, MAASCH...
Marky Socks is a GOP poser...or so out on the fringe as to be irrelevant. But I tend to think the former, with his OVER THE TOP CAPITALIZATION.
As far as Ms vanden Heuvel's article goes, she IS making a false coflation of two events. One is the actual slavery cases, which are extremely rare...the other the usual migrant worker/union dispute over wages.
They are not the same arguments.
Posted by Mask at 12/29/2008 @ 12:08pm
Thank you Ms. Vanden Heuvel. Since the media geniuses have demonized my other two heroes of American conscience, I rely on you to shine that bright light.
Posted by julien38 at 12/30/2008 @ 1:14pm