Farm workers set off on march over tomato prices

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

The marchers mostly 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 farm workers 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 farm worker who picks tomatoes in Immokalee, Otzoy is a member of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which is staging the protest.

The three-day march stops and pickets at a handful of Publix stores along the way. About 200 farm workers and supporters, most wearing green shirts with an altered Publix logo on the front and the word "Poverty" beneath it, headed out from Chillura Park in downtown Tampa this morning.

Organizers say they want Publix to ante up an extra penny per pound of 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 make sure the farm workers get that cent.

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

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

She said that the grocery chain now 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 farm workers marched, saying it's the retailer that makes the bulk of the profit from the produce, not the distributors, and though prices rise at the produce section, the salaries for farm workers have not changed in more than three decades.

Buses of workers and supporters came from South Florida today. Buses from Washington, D.C., and New York were 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 on 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 farm worker, but 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."

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

Saturday'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 begins at 1:30 p.m. at the Publix on South Florida Avenue in Lakeland and ends at Munn Park with a demonstration and concert.