Francisca Cortes
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Immokalee, FL
“we face as farmworkers are the problem of sub-poverty wages and no right to organize (and)... that of modern-day slavery”
Good afternoon. My name is Francisca Cortes and I am a farmworker and member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in Immokalee, Florida. The Coalition is an organization made up of more than 3000 low-wage workers based in Southwest Florida. We fight for fair wages and the respect that we deserve as workers and human beings from the corporations who profit from our poverty and exploitation.
As farmworkers our human dignity is stepped on every day and our human rights are violated as a matter of course. Among the problems we face as farmworkers are the problem of sub-poverty wages and no right to organize. Another problem that we face is that of modern-day slavery. This is slavery in which workers are held against their will, forced to work for one boss, receive little or no pay for full-time work, and live under constant threats. It is slavery where workers are watched 24 hours a day, where they aren’t even allowed to step one foot off the property or receive visitors.
The CIW has helped to discover, investigate, and prosecute 6 cases of slavery in the past several years. But there is still slavery in the fields today. Slavery exists because the regular working conditions are horrible and rights of workers non-existent.
There are only two ways to work in the agricultural industry in the United States – under modern-day slavery or in sweatshops in the fields. For those of us who are free to work where we want, other of our basic human rights are violated every day and we are exploited in another manner.
The day in the life of a worker begins at 4 or 5 every morning when we get up to prepare our lunches and go out to look for work, because we don’t have fixed jobs.
You work under the hot sun from sun up to sundown to make poverty wages. Under the current picking piece rate, a wage that is the same now as it was in 1978 – 40 to 45 cents for every 32 bucket of tomatoes you pick. That means that you have to pick 2 tons of tomatoes – that’s 4000 pounds of tomatoes – in order to earn $50 in a day. All without benefits of any kind, no overtime pay for overtime worked, no vacation days, no sick leave, and no right to organize.
And when we return home at the end of the day all green from the pesticides they spray on the tomato plants – the trailer or rental unit we return to is filled with 12-15 other workers which means that you have to get in line to take a shower and another line to cook your food, because there’s only one bathroom and one stove for everyone who lives there.
There’s no heat during the cold and no air conditioning during the heat. Some must sleep on the floor because there’s no other place. And for this rental we pay $250-$300 per week. We live overcrowded like this not because we want to but because the wages we receive aren’t enough to pay your expenses.
These are the sweatshop conditions in the fields - the sweatshops in the agricultural industry of the United States.
However, today the agricultural industry of today is not the same as it was thirty years ago. Every day there are fewer family farmers that remain in the market. Today we have huge agri-businesses that control the production of the fruits and vegetables that we consume daily.
The agricultural industry itself has had to react to the pressure of huge consumers that are also mega-corporations – like Taco Bell, McDonalds, Burger King, Subway, Chipotle, and Wendy’s, to name a few – that buy agricultural products in great volume.
These corporate consumers have exerted an invisible hand over the agricultural industry for years, demanding to pay the lowest prices in the market without being concerned about the working conditions and lives of the thousands of workers who pick the fruits and vegetables that they buy.
Today we at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are demanding that these corporations accept the responsibility that they have as major buyers of tomatoes from Florida and the entire East Coast of the United States. For four years we focused our struggle on Taco Bell, a fast food giant and a major buyer of the tomatoes we pick. After a boycott that won support from students, people of faith, and people from all across the country, we were able to make Taco Bell meet our demands. Now Taco Bell is paying a premium that results in higher wages for the workers who pick their tomatoes. These workers’ rights are also protected through a code of conduct that guarantees worker participation in its implementation.
Now we are giving McDonald’s and the rest of the fast food industry the opportunity to follow Taco Bell’s lead and to offer their consumers not just fast food but also fair food.
In summary, as farmworkers in the United States three of our basic human rights as defined by the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights – the right to a fair wage, the right to organize and the right to work free from slavery are violated, stepped on, and not respected in the agricultural industry.
It is time to end the slavery and sweatshops in the fields of the United States and it is time for the fast food industry to take the steps towards real corporate responsibility by guaranteeing respect for the human rights for the workers who pick their fruits and vegetables.
Thank you.