Farmworkers march for a penny

Folk songs about Veracruz peasants and blessings translated from English to Spanish sent a band of farmworkers and their supporters on their way Friday morning, intent on making a spirited march from downtown Tampa to the Lakeland headquarters of Publix, the target of their grievances.

Most of the marchers are tomato pickers, mostly Hispanic, from all over Florida. They marched against the Publix supermarket chain, saying the grocery giant is refusing to negotiate an agreement that would give farmworkers a penny more for each pound of tomatoes they pick.

"Today, we are searching for a solution to abuses in Florida agriculture," Oscar Otzoy said through an interpreter. A Guatemalan farmworker who picks tomatoes in Immokalee, Otzoy is a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is staging the protest.

It's a three-day march, and they'll picket a handful of Publix stores along the way. About 200 farmworkers and supporters, most wearing green shirts with an altered Publix logo on the front and the word "Poverty" beneath it, left Joe Chillura Courthouse Square in downtown Tampa on Friday morning.

Organizers say they want Publix to ante up an extra penny a pound for tomatoes in an agreement that makes sure the penny goes directly to the pickers. The process, already adopted by other large retailers, including four global fast-food restaurants, allows an independent audit to ensure the farmworkers get that cent.

Publix officials say they don't negotiate prices of tomatoes, saying they pay the price demanded by distributors.

The farmworkers' complaints "should be addressed with the employers of the workers, not with retailers and their customers," Publix spokeswoman Shannon Patten says in a written statement issued this week. "Employers should pay wages - not those outside the employment relationship."

She said the grocery chain buys tomatoes from a distributor approved by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.

"We do not set the price or negotiate prices for tomatoes," Patten said. "That price is set by the grower or packer."

Still, the farmworkers marched, saying it's the retailer that makes the bulk of the profit from the produce, not the distributors. Farmworkers' pay has not changed in more than three decades, they say.

Buses of workers and supporters came from South Florida on Friday. Buses from Washington and New York are expected to join the demonstration by the time the marchers stop in Lakeland on Sunday.

The rally also addressed the issue of forced labor and slavery in the fields. Organizers cited several recent cases in Florida in which field supervisors charged workers for food, rent, rides to and from the fields and other necessities and forced them to work off the debt.

Such practices are illegal, Publix officials maintain, and should be reported to law enforcement authorities.

"As a community partner for nearly 80 years," Patten said, "it would be unconscionable to believe that our company would support a violation of human rights.

"Publix," she said, "is unaware of a single instance of slavery existing in its supply chain."

Pat Lawhead of Tampa isn't a farmworker, but he sympathizes with their cause. He said he would march shoulder-to-shoulder with the pickers as far as he could.

"I'm here to support the workers," he said. "They are doing work that most people would not be willing to do and for not even a living wage."

Friday's leg of the march was to end at a Publix on East Busch Boulevard near 50th Street.

Today's march is set to start at 9:30 a.m. at the Publix on James Redman Parkway in Plant City, bound for the grocery chain's headquarters in Lakeland. Sunday's march will begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Publix on South Florida Avenue in Lakeland and end at Munn Park with a demonstration and concert.