You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Sodexo’ tag.
Tag Archive
Coming Together for Farmworkers’ Rights
November 20, 2009 in Campus Initiatives, Global Development, Human Rights and Social Justice | Tags: apartheid, Aramark, Burger King, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Compass, Dine with Dignity, farmworkers, food service, Guatemala, Haiti, indentured servants, Kroger, McDonalds, Mexico, modern-day slavery, NAFTA, Pacific Tomato Growers, Publix, Sodexo, Student Farmworker Alliance, Students for a Democratic Society, Subway, Taco Bell, University of Florida, Whole Foods, Yum Brands | by Sarah Frazer | Leave a comment
Students at the University of Florida are working to help farmworkers battle for fair wages and basic human rights.
By Kristen Abdullah and Richard Blake
November 16, 2009
Migrant worker Jorge Rodriguez plays the “quijada,” in Immokalee, Fla. Farmworkers celebrated the recent decision by Taco Bell to accede to the demands of local tomato pickers, who led a four-year boycott against the restaurant chain, and pay a penny more for each pound of Florida tomatoes. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
As we made the four-hour journey south to tomato-town Immokalee, Fla., we ran through the itinerary for the long weekend to come and familiarized ourselves with the 40-plus pages of reading material that we were supposed to have completed three weeks before. The thick packet of literature included stories like “Immokalee family sentenced for slavery,” “Apartheid in America,” and “A more-complete definition of ‘sustainable.’” By the time we arrived in the desolate town, just after midnight, we felt confident in our school-child ability to recite the labor history of this town and felt briefed on the ultimate reason for our visit.
After becoming fed up with the impoverished condition that enslaved them, migrant workers started a grassroots organization called the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) in 1993. Consisting mostly of people from Mexico, Guatemala, and Haiti, these workers had already experienced both verbal and physical abuses since their arrival in the United States. Most of them could remember a time when, back in their own countries, they survived as subsistence farmers—selling crops and living off corn, squash, beans, and, most important, their own autonomy. They weren’t rich, but they were dignified.
But after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was established among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, these small-time farmers could not compete with subsidized crops from the States. Before, Mexico was a major wheat exporter. Now, Mexico only exports cheap labor.