Chanting "No more slaves! Pay a living wage!", (Florida)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51111


Farm Workers Fight for an Extra Cent


Chanting "No more slaves! Pay a living wage!", hundreds of farmworkers, students and others marched 22 miles through central Florida for three days, calling on the Publix supermarket chain to pay an extra penny to the impoverished workers who pick their tomatoes.

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The farmworkers are calling on Publix to pay them a penny more for every pound of tomatoes they pick, which would almost double their meager wages. They also want Publix to sign onto a code of conduct, co-written by the workers themselves, which would prevent the supermarket chain from buying tomatoes from any growers that did not meet certain basic working conditions.

"We get paid 45 cents for picking a bucket of tomatoes," says farmworker Wilson Perez.

The workers have to pick about 4,000 lbs of tomatoes per day (1,818 kg) to earn more than 50 dollars a day, a pay rate that has remained virtually unchanged since 1980, accounting for inflation.

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Publix, which has more than 1,000 supermarkets in the Southeast U.S., brought in 24 billion in revenue last year and made a profit of over a billion dollars.

"They are trying to escape responsibility," the CIW's Chavez responds. But he's confident the farmworkers will prevail and Publix will grant their demands.

"It's just a question of time. We are going to continue pressure," he said. "We know what we deserve…We are entitled to a decent way of living, we are entitled to our human rights."
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pay them the extra penny! greedy Publix CEO bastards.