Farmworkers were making a five-day, 45-mile (72-kilometer) walk this week from one of Florida’s poorest communities to a mansion-lined, oceanfront town to pressure retailers The richest in effort. Leverage your purchasing power to drive for better employee pay and working conditions.
The farmworkers said they were marching to highlight the Fair Food Program, which has allowed companies such as McDonald’s, Walmart, Taco Bell and Whole Foods to use their influence with producers to ensure better working conditions and wages for farmers. listed for use. He hoped to use the march to pressure other companies such as Publix, Wendy’s and Kroger to join the program that began in 2011.
The march began Tuesday in the farming community of Pahokee, Florida’s poorest, where the median household income is about $30,000. The march’s launching point was a camp where farm workers were forced to work for barely any pay by a labor contractor who was convicted last year and sentenced to nearly 10 years in prison. According to the US Department of Justice, the contractor confiscated the passports of Mexican farmworkers, demanded exorbitant fees from them and threatened them with deportation or false arrest.
Marchers were due to arrive Saturday in downtown Palm Beach, which has a median household income of about $169,000 and is lined with mansions of the rich and famous, including billionaire Nelson Peltz, who is Wendy’s chairman, and former President Donald Trump. Trump.
According to the Florida-based Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which organized the march, the program has ensured that farmworkers are paid for the hours they work; guaranteed them access to safety measures such as shade, water and bathrooms during work; And in the fields where tomatoes and other crops are harvested, they have reduced the dangers of sexual assault, harassment and forced labor under armed guard. Immokalee is a southwest Florida agricultural town in the heart of the state’s tomato growing region.
According to the tie-up, producers have benefited as it reduces turnover and improves productivity.
