Article: Labor and Food/Fair Trade Agreement
Source: The Ledger

http://www.theledger.com/article/20130317/NEWS/130319246

Hundreds March on Publix Headquarters to Support Farmworkers

Company says labor issues between workers and their employers

By Kevin Bouffard
THE LEDGER

Published: Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, March 18, 2013 at 3:03 a.m.

LAKELAND | Hundreds of people on Sunday marched on Publix Super Markets Inc. headquarters in Lakeland to culminate a 175-mile trek across Florida in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a labor organization supporting the state's tomato pickers.

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• Coalition of Immokalee Workers March on Publix

The labor group is pressuring Publix to sign its Fair Food Campaign, which would obligate the supermarket chain to pay its tomato suppliers an extra 1 cent per pound that would be passed directly along to pickers' wages.

The Fair Food agreement also obligates growers and suppliers to conform to worker health, safety and other labor standards if they want to continue to do business under the program.

Silvia Perez, 39, of Immokalee, a coalition member and Florida tomato picker for 20 years, said through an interpreter that the extra penny would mean another $70 to $80 a day in wages.

But Perez added the labor standards were just as important to her and fellow wor­kers.

"The workers don't have the right to report abuses" on farms not supporting Fair Food practices, she said. "Publix is still buying tomatoes where workers are being abused."

On some jobs, supervisors have touched her inappropriately and told her to wear sexier clothing, Perez said.

Publix officials insist wages and working conditions are part of a labor issue between the coalition workers and their employers, a dispute that does not involve the supermarket chain.

"Most of our stores offer an array of more than 40,000 products. With that many suppliers, we could be drawn into a potential dispute between another employer and their employees at any time," said Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten in an email to The Ledger.

Patten also insisted Publix supports fair labor practices.

"In the past, we have eliminated suppliers who did not do this, and we would do so again if appropriate," she said in her email. "We expect our suppliers to follow the laws established to protect and promote a safe and healthful workplace for their employees."

Publix would pay the extra penny per pound if that's what the suppliers charged, Patten said.

"This is what we mean when we say, "Put it in the price,'" she said.

But coalition supporters counter that the Publix stance dodges the issue.

The Fair Food agreement "is a collaborative partnership among the growers, workers and buyers in the Florida tomato industry," said Laura Safer Espinoza, a former New York Supreme Court judge and now director of the Fair Food Standards Council in Sarasota, an independent agency that audits compliance with the Fair Food agree­ment.

"This is the farthest thing from a labor dispute," said Espinoza, who participated in the march. "Really, what Publix is saying is as long as they can get cheaper tomatoes, they will do that."

While several national restaurant chains, including McDonald's and Subway, have signed the Fair Food agreement, only Whole Foods and Trader Joe's have signed in the supermarket industry, which buys 50 percent of Florida tomatoes, said Jordan Buckley, a coalition spokes­man.