Fair Food Austin: Fair Food Austin to commemorate 2nd anniversary of Florida slavery case

November 16, 2009

Fair Food Austin to commemorate 2nd anniversary of Florida slavery case

What: Popular theater and son jarocho performance
Where: Texas Union patio and West Mall
When: Thursday, November 19, 12:30pm

On Thursday, November 19, members of Fair Food Austin will commemorate the second anniversary of a modern-day slavery case involving over a dozen tomato pickers who were held in debt peonage, forced to work, and chained inside a box truck at night in Immokalee.

On November 18, 2007, three workers escaped from the truck by punching through a ventilation hatch in the ceiling. The ensuing investigation resulted in the successful federal prosecution of three farm employers on slavery charges (“Slave Labour that Shames America,” The Independent, 12/19/07).

Two years after this horrific case came to light, foodservice providers Aramark and Sodexo – both of whom do business with UT-Austin and buy millions of pounds of Florida tomatoes annually – have yet to take meaningful steps to prevent slavery in their tomato supply chains. As we pointed out last month, this is simply unacceptable ("The Texas Union and Slavery," Daily Texan, 10/6/09).

Join us in calling on Aramark and Sodexo to partner with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) to eliminate slavery in Florida's fields once and for all.

Who We Are

Since 2001, Fair Food Austin has organized with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) for fair wages and dignified working conditions in the U.S. agricultural industry. The CIW is a farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida with over 4,000 members. The CIW has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers.

We use creative methods to educate consumers about the human rights crisis farmworkers face and to promote the Campaign for Fair Food. The campaign requires large food corporations -- from Taco Bell to Whole Foods -- to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers, to pay a premium price for more fairly produced tomatoes, and to buy only from growers who meet those higher standards.

Brutal conditions in Florida's fields may seem distant to consumers deep in the heart of Texas, but many of the restaurant and supermarket chains that have helped create this crisis are present in our community and buy Florida tomatoes at some point during the year. Human rights are universal, and by working together, farmworkers and consumers can create a better world.