Advocating for Farm Workers

This Thursday evening, August 19, at 6:00 p.m., there will be an opportunity to advocate for justice for farm workers outside of Trader Joe’s in Chelsea (6th Avenue and W. 21st Street).  The purpose of the advocacy is to help inform consumers about abuses against farmworkers and to push Trader Joe’s to join an agreement to end abuse and modern-day slavery.

There is a well-documented human rights crisis in Florida’s fields, and conditions facing farmworkers who harvest the tomatoes we buy at places such as Trader Joe’s are as urgent as they are appalling.  Farmworkers picking tomatoes for Trader Joe’s chain of supermarkets earn 40-50 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they harvest–wages hat have not risen since 1978.  A worker must pick nearly 2.5 tons of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hour day.  Grinding poverty leaves farmworkers vulnerable to the most exploitative employers, often resulting in egregious labor rights abuses.

We have the opportunity to encourage the supermarkets where we shop to support social responsibility in the Florida tomato industry.

For more information visit workers@ciw-online.org