Naples Daily News 1997

Farmworker wage dispute

Growers ought to start talking- and listening

Immokalee farmers, grab the opportunity.

A hunger strike by six migrant workers provider a chance for so-far silent growers to come forward and tell their side of the wage story. That story is dominated by pickers now using sophisticated public relations techniques. Images of hunger strikers shaking hands in solidarity, then passing out leaflets at moneyed Naples shopping areas are vivid.

Growers are not getting out their own, surely compelling story about the impact of NAFTA, cost competition from other nations and supermarkets' independent mark-ups of Immokalee crops.

About the only grower connecting with the public is Gargiulo Inc., which responded a few weeks ago to pickers' pleas with a pay raise per bucket of tomatoes- up a dime now and another dime next year.

Pickers want the others to sit down and talk- and are accentuating their point with a hunger strike by six colleagues.

Since that is all the strikers ask of the growers, that they listen, agribusiness has nothing to lose.

After they listen to what the pickers have to say, it will be the growers' turn to stand up and be counted.

Though it grabs attention, there is no rational link between agribusiness economics and farmworkers deciding they would rather stop eating than continue working for wages they believe are under par. If they decide to do so again after meeting and talking with growers, that is up to them.

Petitioners seldom are well-advised to threaten harm to themselves to further their cause.

Still, growers can muster the grace to listen- thus breaking the hunger strike- in exchange for an opportunity to tell their side of the story.