Orlando action biggest Publix protest yet in month of action!

4 (2)Orlando action (right) biggest Publix protest yet in month of action!

Also: Second powerful Op/Ed by Florida pastor in the past week takes Publix to task for “ignor(ing) farmworkers’ plight, quietly profiting from Florida’s persistent harvest of shame.”

With the third straight weekend of action in the books, workers from Immokalee and their central Florida allies raised the “Month of Publix Protests” to new levels this past Sunday, rocking Orlando and surprising a Lakeland store in the shadow of Publix’s corporate headquarters with an impromptu protest.

Check here for more pictures from the weekend’s actions.

Meanwhile, another powerful Op/Ed by a member of the clergy in Florida demanding that Publix work with the CIW for farm labor justice was published this Sunday, this time in the Naples Daily News. Rev. Dana Hendershot, a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, wrote a guest commentary entitled, “Half-century old TV clip remains a snapshot of today from farm fields,” (11/1/09). Here’s an excerpt:

2 (2)“… Despite resistance by leaders of Florida’s tomato industry, three growers — Alderman Farms, Lady Moon Farms and East Coast Growers — have agreed this coming season to pass along to harvesters an extra penny-per-pound pledged by these companies.

But while U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has fittingly described the commitment of these growers as “the beginning of the end of the ‘Harvest of Shame,’” one must wonder why Publix has declined to take part in the opportunity.

Simply put, Publix — Florida’s largest privately held company — has two options. It can support social responsibility and take advantage of its buying power to make a positive difference in the lives of farmworkers, as so many retail industry leaders already have, or it can continue to ignore farmworkers’ plight, quietly profiting from Florida’s persistent harvest of shame…”

Read Rev. Hendershot’s Op/Ed in its entirety here!

And click here for Rev. Jim Boler’s Op/Ed from earlier last week, “Publix involved in tomato pickers’ fate, like it or not” (10/27/09).