Florida Tomato Growers Exchange Calls Latest Protest Misleading

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange decried what it calls the misleading of the public about "penny-per-pound" deals that professional activists conjure up ,but do not exist.

The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange is a private, voluntary, member-driven agricultural cooperative comprising Florida tomato growers. The Exchange today expressed concern over the supposed penny-per-pound schemes, saying that they may violate federal and state laws related to antitrust, labor, and racketeering, so that its members have chosen not to participate in any pact in which a third party sets wages for their employees.

However, says the Exchange, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) is involved "in a desperate attempt to pressure Burger King into adopting a penny-per-pound deal that does not exist. There is no such arrangement in effect between producers and fast-food companies, which continue to buy Florida tomatoes...The now moot arrangement netted workers a small weekly amount so insignificant that many chose not to even cash the checks. The McDonald's deal never went into effect. This season's payroll records show that Florida tomato harvesters' hourly pay ranged from $10.50 to $14.86, with an average of $12.46 per hour...Florida's tomato producers...undergo audits by third-party companies to ensure they provide a work environment for their employees that is free of hazard, intimidation, violence and harassment," said the Exchange.

The CIW is calling its actions a "Campaign for Fair Food".

The CIW members insist that they do not get paid as much as the Exchange says they do, and that they work far more than the listed 25-30 hours per week harvesting tomatoes and do so under often harsh conditions which include beginning their day in the pre-dawn darkness as early as 4AM. They say they are paid $0.40-0.45 per 32-pound bucket.

In 2003, after two years of pressure from CIW, Taco Bell sent the coalition a check for $110,000, which equaled an extra penny for every pound of produce picked and bought by the restaurant chain. But, CIW sent the check back, saying it was just a ploy to avoid shame.

The CIW spokesperson, Julia Perkins, has said that the producers in the Exchange will not be participating because they refuse to acknowledge the importance of their workers. Almost 90% of America's winter tomatoes are harvested in Florida.

CIW has elsewhere insisted that Florida tomato harvesters have not received a wage-hike in 30 years. The Exchange, however, says that they receive a cost-of-living wage hike every single year, and that they do not live in the impoverished conditions that they claim, as the Exchange not only pays a decent wage but also provides its members with inexpensive and government inspected housing.

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