Also… Great story on East Coast agreement in Florida Catholic!
From September 10-13, Immokalee played host to nearly 100 students & youth for the SFA’s fifth-annual Encuentro!
Over the course of the weekend, Encuentro participants attended workshops, had fun, and sweated in the intense Florida heat — all while strategizing around the upcoming year in the Campaign for Fair Food and SFA’s Dine with Dignity campaign. Click on the link below for the exclusive photo report from the exciting weekend and for an advance look at plans for what is sure to be an action-packed fall to come:
2009 Ecuentro Report & Fall semester of Action
Also… The Florida Catholic (the official newspaper for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Miami and the Dioceses of Orlando, Palm Beach, Pensacola-Tallahassee, St. Petersburg, and Venice) ran a great story this week on the recent agreement with East Coast Growers (“Tomato pickers penny per pound is ‘right before God'”, 9/25/09). Here’s an extended excerpt:
| “… Problems arose two years ago, however. The strong Florida Tomato Growers Exchange threatened a $100,000 fine to any grower who attempted to pay the workers the increase. The money has been sitting in escrow accounts rather than being passed on to the laborers. East Coast Growers and Packers objected to this and eventually resigned from the exchange and partnered with the workers’ coalition.
‘This is just the start,’ said Brigitte Gynther of the farmworker advocacy group Interfaith Action of Southwest Florida. ‘They’re going to be implementing the system. The exciting thing is that they’re willing and open to improving wages and following a code of conduct that puts them ahead of the rest of the industry.’ What are the ramifications to East Coast Growers of leaving the industry group? Madonia Jr. shared, ‘We won’t have as much lobbying power in Washington, yet we’ll have all the power of the people and being on the right side of doing business.’ Madonia’s parents, Evelyn and Batista Madonia Sr., started in the tomato industry in Pennsylvania in 1958. The company has become one of the top four Florida tomato farms with 7,000 acres of farmland and three packing facilities with headquarters in Plant City. ‘We’ve lived the life they live,’ Madonia Jr. continued. ‘Having to move from place to place, starting school late or without my parents – it’s not a favorite memory, but it gave me insight on life today. We’ve done well and we’re sharing that.’ Benitez said, ‘I was 17 and working in the fields and saw the injustices that were happening in the country of abundance – so many of the farmworkers are so poor and treated so poorly. We started our organization in the Catholic Church here in Immokalee – at Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish and that’s something we’ll never forget. I was raised a Catholic and a great part of our work is very firmly rooted in Catholic social teaching.’ ‘It’s really the beginning of the future,’ Benitez concluded, ‘in which the whole agricultural industry will see that it’s prime time to come into this century improving how workers are treated. The Madonias are the first large company to be with us in this part of history. I think that’s exactly what Jesus came to do –to give hope to the neediest and the value of each human being.’ read more |