Economic slavery in the US of A??? Impossible. It's a country of free enterprise is all.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Darryl Christoph Reuss wrote: > http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article3263500.ece > > Slave labour that shames America > > Migrant workers chained beaten and forced into debt, exposing the human > cost of producing cheap food > > By Leonard Doyle in Immokalee, Florida > Published: 19 December 2007 > > Three Florida fruit-pickers, held captive and brutalised by their employer > for more than a year, finally broke free of their bonds by punching their > way through the ventilator hatch of the van in which they were imprisoned. > Once outside, they dashed for freedom. > > When they found sanctuary one recent Sunday morning, all bore the marks of > heavy beatings to the head and body. One of the pickers had a nasty, > untreated knife wound on his arm. Police would learn later that another man > had his hands chained behind his back every night to prevent him escaping, > leaving his wrists swollen. > > The migrants were not only forced to work in sub-human conditions but > mistreated and forced into debt. They were locked up at night and had to > pay for sub-standard food. If they took a shower with a garden hose or > bucket, it cost them $5. > > Their story of slavery and abuse in the fruit fields of sub-tropical > Florida threatens to lift the lid on some appalling human rights abuses in > America today. > > Between December and May, Florida produces virtually the entire US crop of > field-grown fresh tomatoes. Fruit picked here in the winter months ends up > on the shelves of supermarkets and is also served in the country's top > restaurants and in tens of thousands of fast-food outlets. > > But conditions in the state's fruit-picking industry range from > straightforward exploitation to forced labour. Tens of thousands of men, > women and children - excluded from the protection of America's employment > laws and banned from unionising - work their fingers to the bone for rates > of pay which have hardly budged in 30 years. > > Until now, even appeals from the former president Jimmy Carter to help > raise the wages of fruit-pickers have gone unheeded. However, with Florida > looming as a key battleground during the the next presidential election, > there is hope that their cause will be raised by the Democratic candidates > Barack Obama and John Edwards. > > Fruit-pickers, who typically earn about $200 (£100) a week, are part of an > unregulated system designed to keep food prices low and the plates of > America's overweight families piled high. The migrants, largely Hispanic > and with many of them from Mexico, are the last wretched link in a long > chain of exploitation and abuse. They are paid 45 cents (22p) for every > 32-pound bucket of tomatoes collected. A worker has to pick nearly > two-and-a-half tons of tomatoes - a near impossibility - in order to reach > minimum wage. So bad are their working and living conditions that the US > Department of Labour, which is not known for its sympathy to the underdog, > has called it "a labour force in considerable distress". > > A week after the escapees managed to emerge from the van in which they had > been locked up for the night, police discovered that a forced labour > operation was supplying fruit-pickers to local growers. Court papers > describe how migrant workers were forced into debt and beaten into going to > work on farms in Florida, as well as in North and South Carolina. > Detectives found another 11 men who were being kept against their will in > the grounds of a Florida house shaded by palm trees. The bungalow stood > abandoned this week, a Cadillac in the driveway alongside a black and > chrome pick-up truck with a cowboy hat on the dashboard. The entire > operation was being run by the Navarettes, a family well known in the area. > > Also near by was the removals van from which Mariano Lucas, one of the > first to escape, punched his way through a ventilation hatch to freedom in > the early hours of 18 November. With him were Jose Velasquez, who had > bruises on his face and ribs and a cut forearm, and Jose Hari. The men told > police they had to relieve themselves inside the van. Other migrant workers > were kept in other vehicles and sheds scattered around the garden. > > Enslaved by the Navarettes for more than a year, the men had been working > in blisteringly hot conditions, sometimes for seven days a week. Despite > their hard work, they were mired in debt because of the punitive charges > imposed by their employer, who is being held on minor charges while a grand > jury investigates his alleged involvement in human trafficking. > > The men had to pay to live in the back of vans and for food. Their entire > pay cheques went to the Navarettes and they were still in debt. They slept > in decrepit sheds and vehicles in a yard littered with rubbish. When one > man did not want to go to work because he was sick, he was allegedly pushed > and kicked by the Navarettes. "They physically loaded him in the van and > made him go to work that day. Cesar, Geovanni and Martin Navarette beat him > up and as a result he was bleeding in his mouth," a grand jury was told. > > The complaint reveals that the men were forced to pay rent of $20 (£10) a > week to sleep in a locked furniture van where they had no option but to > urinate and defecate in a corner. They had to pay $50 a week for meals - > mostly rice and beans with meat perhaps twice a week if they were lucky. > The fruit-pickers' caravans, which they share with up to 15 other men, rent > for $2,400 a month - more per square foot than a New York apartment - and > are less than 10 minutes' walk from the hiring fair where the men show up > before sunrise. At least half those who come looking for work are not taken > on. > > Florida has a long history of exploiting migrant workers. Farm labourers > have no protection under US law and can be fired at will. Conditions have > barely changed since 1960 when the journalist Edward R Murrow shocked > Americans with Harvest Of Shame, a television broadcast about the bleak and > underpaid lives of the workers who put food on their tables. "We used to > own our slaves but now we just rent them," Murrow said, in a phrase that > still resonates in Immokalee today. > > For several years, a campaign has been under way to improve the workers' > conditions. After years of talks, a scheme to pay the tomato pickers a > penny extra per pound has been signed off by McDonald's, the world's > biggest restaurant chain, and by Yum!, which owns 35,000 restaurants > including KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. But Burger King, which also buys > its tomatoes in Immokalee, has so far refused to participate, threatening > the entire scheme. > > "We see no legal way of paying these workers," said Steve Grover, the > vice-president of Burger King. He complained that a local human rights > group, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers "has gone after us because we are > a known brand". But he added: "At the end of the day, we don't employ the > farmworkers so how can we pay them?" > > Burger King will not pay the extra penny a pound that the tomato-pickers > are demanding he said. "If we agreed to the penny per pound, Burger King > would pay about $250,000 annually, or $100 per worker. How does that solve > exploitation and poverty?" he asked. > > Burger King is not the only buyer digging in its heels. Whole Foods Market, > which recently expanded into Britain with a store in London's upmarket > suburb of Kensington, has been discovered stocking tomatoes from one of the > most notorious Florida sweatshop producers. Whole Foods ignored an appeal > by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to pay an extra penny a pound for its > tomatoes. > > In a statement Whole Foods said it was "committed to supporting and > promoting economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable > agriculture" and supports "the right of all workers to be treated fairly > and humanely." > > The Democratic candidates for the presidency do not often talk about > exploited migrant workers, but there are hints that Barack Obama will visit > the Immokalee fruit pickers sometime before Florida's primary election on 5 > February. > > Jimmy Carter recently joined the campaign to improve the lot of > fruit-pickers, appealing to Burger King and the growers "to restore the > dignity of Florida's tomato industry". His appeal fell on deaf ears but 100 > church groups, including the Catholic bishop of Miami, joined him. > > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword > "igve". > > > _______________________________________________ > Futurework mailing list > Futurework@fes.uwaterloo.ca > http://fes.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework > > > --- > avast! Antivirus: Inbound message clean. > Virus Database (VPS): 071220-0, 12/20/2007 > Tested on: 12/21/2007 6:36:27 AM > avast! - copyright (c) 1988-2007 ALWIL Software. > http://www.avast.com > > > > > --- avast! Antivirus: Outbound message clean. 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