RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights joins with Anti-Slavery International in joint statement remembering the slave trade and its abolition, demanding an end to modern-day slavery in Florida's fields!...

Joint statement urges "FloridaTomato Growers Exchange to stop opposing human rights agreements" between CIW and fast-food industry leaders;

August 25, 2008: The following is the text of a joint press release issued Friday, August 22, by the the RFK Memorial Center for Human Rights and London-based Anti-Slavery International:

For Immediate Release:

RFK Center and Anti-Slavery International Celebrate International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition

Advocates Urge Florida Tomato Growers Exchange to Stop Opposing Human Rights Agreements between Farmworkers and Burger King, McDonald's, and YUM! Brands' to Fight Modern Day Slavery

(Washington, DC) The International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition on August 23rd is a day to reflect on the tragedy of the transatlantic slave trade and the reality of modern day slavery. Anti-Slavery International and The Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights celebrate the success of the human rights defenders who brought down the transatlantic slave trade and the efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their supporters in the Campaign for Fair Food along with socially responsible corporations to address modern day slavery.

They are also calling upon the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange (FTGE) to take a stand against forced labor in Florida's fields by ending their obstructive practices against agreements made between farmworkers and major produce buyers to support human rights in their supply chains. The FTGE is a cooperative of Florida tomato growers which account for the overwhelming majority of Florida's tomato production. The CIW has reached deals with Taco Bell owner Yum! Brands, Inc., McDonald's, and Burger King, in March 2005, April 2007 and May 2008, respectively, whereby those corporations agreed to pay tomato pickers 1 penny more per pound of tomatoes picked and to work with farmworkers on systems to ensure slavery does not occur on the farms of their suppliers. The FTGE has taken steps in recent months to stymie the implementation of these initiatives.

"Over two hundred years after the U.S. Congress banned the slave trade, farmworkers in Florida's fields still bear the pain and indignity of modern day slavery and human rights abuses to pick the tomatoes which top the salads and sandwiches Americans eat everyday," said Aidan McQuade, Director of Anti-Slavery International. "The Florida Tomato Grower's Exchange has the opportunity to partner with its customers to implement these human rights based agreements, but it is refusing to do so."

In the past decade, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has conducted dozens of investigations into slavery in the U.S. agricultural industry, resulting in eight prosecutions involving over one thousand workers in Florida, which DOJ officials have called "ground-zero for modern day slavery." These include workers who were locked in trailers, tied up and chained, drugged, and threatened with physical harm to their families if they attempted to leave. Criminal prosecutions for slavery occur only in the most extreme cases while many workers are exploited in subtler ways that go unpunished. These workers, whose rights to organize and collectively bargain are not protected by federal law, and whose wages are pushed below poverty level by the downward pressure on prices exerted by the volume purchasing power of major purchasing companies, have become victims of slavery and other gross human rights abuses.

"The FTGE members are standing in the way of workers realizing their human rights and the express will of consumers and socially responsible corporations working to promote fair food," said Monika Kalra Varma, Director of the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights. "Today, as the world celebrates the end of the gross abuses of the slave trade, we are calling upon the FTGE to end their obstructive practices, support workers' rights and join us in standing against modern day slavery."

Anti-Slavery International (www.antislavery.org)
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial (www.rfkmemorial.org)
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The statement is the latest expression of outrage over the FTGE's
obstructionist tactics in the face of a growing call for fair wages
and humane working conditions in Florida's fields. Unfortunately, it will come as little surprise to anyone who has been following this campaign over the years if this appeal by two leading human rights organizations falls on deaf ears inside the offices of the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange. Not even a Senate hearing into slavery and sweatshop conditions in Florida's fields managed to move the FTGE off its unconscionable opposition to the CIW's agreements with fast-food industry leaders.

Florida's most conservative growers take comfort in the fact that they don't sell their tomatoes to the public and believe, therefore, that they can thumb their noses at their critics as long as their clients -- this country's multibillion-dollar retail food industry leaders like Subway and WalMart -- are happy.

But retail food industry leaders do sell to the public, and do have to answer to the growing public outcry over the failure of the food industry to address the longstanding exploitation of this country's farmworkers.

Even if the FTGE isn't paying attention, the public is. With the Slow Food Nation gathering set to start next week in San Francisco -- where thousands of this country's most dedicated food activists will come together to learn, among other things, about the reality of labor exploitation in this country's fields -- now is the time for retail food industry leaders to step up and take a stand against slavery and sweatshop conditions where their tomatoes are picked.