Naples Daily News

Editorial and Opinion

December 13, 1996

Coalition of Immokalee Workers - A voice against injustice

Local farmworkers rights activists have played key roles in the indictment of an Immokalee labor recruiter for enslaving migrants with brute force and debt.

Nicely done.

The development solidifies the community role of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. It stands tall as a safe haven and listening ear for migrant workers who feel they have nowhere else to turn.

The breakthrough case should rally support for the organization, which needs a strong membership to communicate with the law enforcement and agribusiness establishment.

The indictment of the Immokalee man and three associates demands attention on many levels. Coalition members encountered the trail of injustice in Arizona, where migrant laborers were promised jobs, herded into vans and trucks and taken to remote holding camps, court records show.

Guards would pistol-whip and wave guns at the migrants to keep them in line, then load them back into filthy vehicles for a three-day trip to South Carolina -- for $400 to $500 a piece, records say. Unable to pay right away, the victims would have their wages garnished and be charged exorbitant prices for food and water, thus enslaving them on a treadmill of indebtedness to their masters.

A different debt, of gratitude, is owed the few brave Coalition members who experienced and witnessed the abuse, and dared to tell their tale. Thank goodness the Florida Rural Legal Services, a pillar of fair play in Immokalee for decades, listened and provided expertise and follow-through.

The precedent is that those who would abuse migrants' basic rights can run but they cannot hide from the law -- or the Coalition. That applies as far away as Arizona or as nearby as the Coalition's back yard, where a migrant worker has told investigators he was kicked three times by his boss for helping himself to a drink of cold water in the fields.

There is a beacon of light, now with proven effectiveness, on duty for the lot of farmworkers. They need it as long as the "Harvest of Shame" rings true.