Posted on 02/20/2010 1:26:46 PM PST by Willie Green
FT. MYERS (2010-2-17) - After years of struggle, tomato pickers in Florida will soon see a pay increase.
In a surprise move Tuesday, the Florida Tomato Exchange agreed to pay migrant workers the extra penny per pound the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has fought for the last three years.
The Exchange said it will allow companies like McDonalds and Burger King to pay the extra penny per pound to workers if they choose. It represents growers producing 75 percent of all Florida tomatoes.
Those companies will pay a supplemental wage based on the amount of tomatoes purchased. The money will be divided among the migrant workers on a weekly basis.
Exchange Vice President Reggie Brown says it’s a move to allow those companies to have social accountability.
“That enables them to pass funds to the migrant worker community and we’re willing to take those funds in our payroll period and distribute those funds to the workers,” Brown said.
Lucas Benitez, spokesman for the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, says it’s about time.
He says the Exchange has resisted the pay increase for years, but now is spinning its change in position to make it appear the pay increase was the growers’ idea.
“The lies they made at the beginning when they said that it was impossible to pay the extra penny to the workers, now they’re saying they can. Those lies they’ve been making throughout our campaign – they’re now trying to retract,” Benitez said.
The money collected from companies like Burger King and Subway has been sitting in an escrow. Benitez says that will soon be distributed to the workers.
The exchange also agreed to regular audits and a code of conduct to allow workers to more easily complain about working conditions.
These are those thick-skinned, tasteless tomatoes that allegedly "ship well".
They sacrificed taste for something that has a better shipping survival ability.
These are imported workers I believe.
Its also stupid. Let the free market decide what they get paid.
Pardon my French, but WTF?
That penny a pound should be going to hard working American Tomato Pickers.
“Its also stupid. Let the free market decide what they get paid.”
Exactly, and those Tomato Picking Jobs should be going to American Workers, not Imported Workers.
The protection racket goes mainstream.
Went to college fer it, too.
That 'n nose pickin'.
Around here farm land is vanishing under a layer of gated communities. Local produce is limited, and it's going to get worse.
Urbanites should have to work on farms for a while, until they understand where food comes from and what it takes to get it in the store.
Agree it adds up to a dollar an hour that will be passed onto us and I wouldn’t mind as much if it were Americans getting these jobs but it is not it is temporary workers.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9DQ650G2&show_article=1
Expecting someone to pick peas is racist!
The Rate of Unemployment in Florida is 11.6% and that does not count all those that are only working part time or have given-up looking for work.
That being the case, the people picking those tomatoes in Florida should be Americans and not imported workers.
I do grow my own tomatoes and have local farmer's market tomatoes here in Iowa to bolster the supply.
During the 33 years I lived in Florida, I saw the flavor disappear over time. It was then that I found out that it wasn't the soil, climate or anything like that...they just bred the taste out of them to be able to ship easily. A neighbor, Dr. Sherwood here at Iowa State Univ. says they have developed tomatoes that taste good AND ship well but they're not catching on to any great degree.
There are young people now who don't know what a good tomato is supposed to taste like.
Grsnted we are in hard times, but we have a hardened underlayer who won't work when jobs are plentiful, all work is beneath their "dignity". They are the reason the foreign workers are here, and we pay twice for those tomatos, we pay the workers, and we pay those who won't work.
The latter are paid much better.
“These are imported workers I believe.”
Really? Imported legally or illegally?
Legally I guess.
Like the south Florida Publix checkout people. /s
First of all, how do you know they are imported? We use hand labor and they are Americans and yes, we had more than we needed this year. Most of them were making under $25 a day because there were so many pickers the loads were picked in 2 hours.
We pay .25 a pound for red chile.
We pay .05 a pound for green chile and good pickers can pick a ton a day. Green chile is about 5 times heavier than red chile.
Amen to your #2.
Uniform in size, color, texture and tastelessness.
***We pay .05 a pound for green chile and good pickers can pick a ton a day.***
Must be heavy peppers! I used to get paid 1 cent a pound to pick green beans back about 1962! The most I ever earned for a days work was $5.00. Then the weather got hot and the beans got light. I still got 1 cent a lb but picked the same ammount as before. The most I ever earned then was $2.60 a day. the owners later gave us an increase in pay to 1 1/2 cents a lb. Woopee do.
**In my time I’ve shoveled chicken poop...**
I did that also! Four teens working to fill one manure spreader. We got $1.00 a load. Made about $3.00 a day!
Then we found other work, and the one kid left loaded manure for...$1.00 a load, doing the work of four! he didn’t last long.
But then, you did this, picked beans, hauled hay, or you starved! There was no alternative.
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