Lawmaker calls for hearing on conditions

By Amy Bennett Williams

A day after one of the biggest slavery indictments in Southwest Florida history, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., visited the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and called for Senate hearings on farm conditions.

"This is not acceptable in the United States of America," Sanders said. "Consumers do not want their tomatoes picked by workers who are so grossly mistreated. We want congressional hearings so people can understand how slavery can take place here."

Sanders was joined by best-selling author Eric Schlosser ("Fast Food Nation") and Noelle Damico, national coordinator of the 2.3 million-member Presbyterian Church's Campaign for Fair Food. They urged Burger King to agree to a penny-per-pound rate increase for farm workers, as McDonald's and Yum! Brands (parent corporation of Taco Bell) have, following a campaign by the Coalition.

Sanders, a member of the Senate labor committee, released two letters: one to Burger King CEO John Chidsey, one to Reggie Brown, executive vice-president of Florida Tomato Growers Exchange also signed by Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio and committee chairman Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.

Both letters urged participation in the rate increase, saying workers' pay has not gone up in two decades, that slavery cases have been brought successfully against people in the tomato industry and that workers' living conditions in Southwest Florida are "among the worst in the agriculture industry."

Sanders said the slavery case is just the extreme end of a spectrum of potential exploitation farm workers face.

The 17-count indictment released by a federal grand jury Thursday alleges that six people systematically abused undocumented farmworkers from Guatemala and Mexico by taking their I.D.s, forcing them to work without pay, creating debit accounts they couldn't repay, hooking them on alcohol to keep them working and beating them if they wanted to leave.

Brown, of the Tomato Growers Exchange said he resents his group being associated with slavery cases. Brown said he'd welcome a Senate hearing, "If an honest review of the facts were achieved," he said. "The accusations that are thrown about are false."

He denounced what he called the "penny-a-pound scheme," saying that it would create a joint employment situation with fast-food restaurants that his group doesn't want.

Schlosser said he doesn't understand the group's or Burger King's reluctance.

"The changes that are being asked for are so small and so easily achieved," Schlosser said. "Aside from the moral and ethical problem with their positions, now there's the possibility of a senate investigation — you'd think they'd want to look ahead.

"I'm a big critic of McDonald's, but I give them credit for doing the right thing"

Edy O'Brien came from south Fort Myers to support the Coalition after hearing about the campaign at her Catholic church, St. Columbkille. "I've just been disgusted at what I've heard," she said. "I've eaten at Burger King in the past, but never again — that is, unless they change."

Eufebia Vargas of Immokalee had a Whopper Value Meal lunch Friday at the local BK. She said she wasn't sure she'd go back to the fast-food giant, but for a different reason than O'Brien's: "I don't get into all that political stuff, but the fries were real cold today."