Tuesday December 14, 8:31 am Eastern Time

Fla. Farm Workers Threaten Stoppage

By MILDRADE CHERFILS

Associated Press Writer

IMMOKALEE, Fla. (AP) -- Marching from labor camp to labor camp, more than a hundred farm workers urged fellow laborers to join a work stoppage aimed at forcing growers to negotiate higher wages.

The crowd protesting Monday night grew in size as it moved through dimly-lit streets lined with trailer homes. The protesters carried a large banner, a megaphone and walked alongside their mascot, Don Tomate, a large papier-mache mask shaped like a tomato.

``You don't have to be afraid,'' Bernado Contreras told about five men standing outside their home. Contreras, 28, a tomato picker from Oaxaca, Mexico, was trying to convince the men not to work today.

``You have to fight,'' he pleaded. ``This fight is for all of us.''

Many workers failed to board buses to the fields Monday near the farm town of Immokalee, about 100 miles west of Miami. The area accounts for about one-third of the state's tomato crop.

Workers want their pay increased from about 45 cents a bucket to 75 cents, an amount they say would give them a livable wage. The protest coincide with the winter harvest as tomatoes ripen in the field.

Lucas Benitez, one of the protest organizers, said the timing gives workers an edge. ``Producers don't want to buy red tomatoes,'' he said. ``They want green.''

A protest organizer was detained by police Monday and three farm workers were arrested after they tried to intercede. All were later released.

Organizers collected more than 1,700 signatures requesting talks with eight of Florida's largest farms, including Pacific Tomato Growers, Nobles Farms and Red Star Farms.

A woman who answered the phone at the Pacific Tomato Growers, one of the area's biggest growers, would not comment Monday.

Protesters also sent Gov. Jeb Bush a letter requesting help from state officials in improving agricultural practices in Florida. Organizers said they had not yet received any responses from their bosses or the governor.