A life-changing weekend… March 4-6, 2011, 21 workers and organizers from 11 of the 12 member groups of the Food Chain Workers Alliance converged in Florida!  See photos on our Flickr page and videos on our YouTube channel!

Quote from Publix supermarket spokesperson

We first participated in actions in Tampa focused on Publix as part of Alliance member the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Do the Right Thing Tour.  Publix still refuses to sign on in support of the CIW’s Fair Food principles, including an extra penny per pound paid to the farmworkers, a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process. Early arrivers on Friday March 4 joined a “plantón” – a day-long picket outside a Publix market not far from the airport.  We then all met for dinner and icebreakers in the evening.

The next day we split into three groups to join marches leaving from three different Publix markets to converge on one central Publix.  Some of us marched 1.5 miles, others 4 miles, and a big group marched 6 miles!

FCWA folks participate in a teatro/skit

We then joined a rally of a thousand people and participated in a teatro/skit that highlighted the organizing efforts of the farmworkers and the support from allies like us!

After an amazing day of action, we drove 2.5 hours down to Immokalee. The next morning we woke up early for breakfast and a tour of the CIW’s community center and saw the dismal trailers that the farmworkers are forced to rent. They have to pay $1600-2000 per month (equal to the same price per square foot as a Manhattan apartment!) because they don’t have transportation and therefore must live close to the parking lot where they are picked up early for work each morning.

April Easley, a member of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Los Angeles, was moved to tears hearing the terrible conditions that the farmworkers face. She said the weekend was a life-changing experience: “This has brought my awareness level up to a level of great expectancy. I will be conscious to stay down for the struggle, from the farm to the corporate level, for living wages for everybody!”

Role-playing

After the tour, with help from the Alliance’s Policy Committee, Saba Waheed of the DataCenter led all of us through a train-the-trainers session to prepare everyone to lead a training of workers in their own organization to be surveyors. This is the start of the first-ever survey of workers throughout the entire food system, which will culminate in a report on the state of food workers to be published early next year. Despite the long day of action the day before and the lack of sleep, everyone was focused, participated in role plays and discussions, and felt ready to lead the training in their own organization. Fernando Garcia, an organizer with the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center, said about the survey, “This will be a good organizing tool to talk to our members and to new workers.”

Overall, a great weekend!  Luis DeLeon, a member of ROC-Chicago, said, “I think I had a real awakening. Every time I see a tomato, I’ll think about who picked this, who distributed this, were they treated fairly.  I’ll remember this weekend my whole life.”