Original subtitles

[Atmospheric music]

*

[Acoustic guitar music]

*

You arrive here around 7:00, 7:30.

Then you have to wait for several hours until the dew is

Gone from the plant.

One of the most difficult things is just to come to a

Realization how little you mean to the people that, that

You are working for.

I still believe agriculture is the backbone of America, and

When you have an industry as big as agriculture, you've got

To pay attention to the labor force.

The history of farm labor in the United States is a history

Of exploitation.

Plantation and the ghetto were created by those who had power

Both to confine those who have no power and to perpetuate

That powerlessness.

All my life I have been driven to overthrow a farm labor

System in this nation that treats farm workers as if they

Were not important human beings.

These people have suffered tremendously, and uh, grown

Much more slowly economically than any other segment of our society.

The appalling conditions of farm workers moved my brother

To crack down on the abuses, but too little has changed

Over the years.

Their working conditions are deplorable, but most of them

Are afraid to demand fair treatment, because they know

They'll be fired, blacklisted or turned over to

Immigration officials.

It is terribly important that we understand how in the year

2008 slavery, slavery can exist, and how workers can be

Treated as badly as they are.

Most people have no idea that they're connected to this

System every time they buy fresh fruits and vegetables.

All the fresh fruits and vegetables in supermarkets

Arrive there via the supply chain: An intricate system of

Distributors, farmers, and farm workers.

Supermarkets set all the rules in the supply chain.

The prices consumers pay, how farmers grow their crops, what

These crops can look and taste like, and ultimately how much

Money is left over to pay workers at the bottom of the

Supply chain.

While all the workers who pick their produce live below the

Poverty line, these massive corporations generate a half a

Trillion dollars a year in the U.S. alone.

I think the entire supermarket business goes out of its way

So that you're not reminded of where your food came from.

If a handful of companies decided that they wanted to

Eliminate poverty and exploitation among farm

Workers, it could happen very very quickly.

Pennies more on purchases of fresh fruits and vegetables

Could eliminate this problem.

Food means...

To me, it means life.

It means memories.

From what I remember when I was a kid, from my

Grandfather, he used to tell me that I should never feel

Bad about buying an expensive plate of food once in a while.

That we work in this life to be able to not worry about food.

Sometimes we as farm workers don't eat because you live in

A situation where you go day by day.

To live hungry while you are working, that's not a

Dignified way of living.

That's not what we want.

What we want is to be able to establish change.

The coalition of immokalee workers, or cow, is a small

Group of tomato pickers past and present dedicated to

Ending the poverty and exploitation of fellow farm workers.

The cow's fair food program demands that the large

Purchasers of tomatoes acknowledge their reliance on

Farm workers and do two things: Pay workers an extra

Penny for every pound of tomatoes they pick, which

Would double their wages, and help eradicate abuse

In the fields.

The cow's latest campaign is against publix.

Publix is the largest purchaser of tomatoes in

Florida and one of the highest-grossing supermarket

Chains in the world.

[Chanting in Spanish]

Publix has refused to meet with the cow or discuss the

Fair food program, and so the cow is launching a hunger

Strike in front of the publix headquarters.

A meeting with publix executives:

That's all the cow wants.

If publix simply agrees to talk, the strike will end.

Publix has been aware of our campaign for a while and

Decided to not respond to the terrible conditions and unfair

Abuses taking place within their tomato supply chain.

We believe that perhaps today an executive in there is

Beginning to think that sitting down with farm workers

Might just be a good thing to do.

[Indistinct speech]

This is immokalee, 1960.

This is a shape up for migrant workers.

This is where the humans who harvest the food for the best

Fed people in the world get hired.

This is an American story that begins in Florida.

It has to do with the men, women and children who harvest

The crops in this country of ours, the best fed nation on

Earth.

These are the forgotten people.

The under-protected, the undereducated, the

Under-clothed, the underfed.

This is CBS reports' harvest of shame.

"Harvest of shame" was broadcast at this time of

Incredible American prosperity, where there was

This notion that the depression had been left

Behind and America was becoming the richest country

In the world, and Edward r. Murrow

Reminded viewers that there was just this terrible

Poverty and exploitation hidden, hidden from view.

One farmer looked at this and said "we used to own our"

Slaves, now we just rent them."

Well, I guess they got a little gypsy in their blood.

They just like it.

Lot of them wouldn't do anything else.

Lot of them don't know any different.

That's all they want to do.

They love it.

I think it would be easy to demonize farmers, and uh, hold

Them responsible for the poor wages of migrants.

That might've been true in some cases 30 years ago, 40

Years ago, but that's not really the problem today.

If you want to make change, I think you need to look at the

People who have the real power to make the lives of farm

Workers better, and those are the people at the very top.

Farm workers are the foundation of a massive supply

Chain that includes farmers and distributors, but that is

Dominated by fast food, food service and supermarkets

Like publix.

The power of supermarkets is rooted in their gross revenue.

They earn more than monsanto, Goldman sachs, Microsoft,

And apple.

When you talk about grocery chains, it is very very easy

To bully the small farmers.

They are being villainized, and they know they're being

Villainized, but their hands are tied.

It's a very difficult world for most farmers.

Certainly there is this nostalgic vision of, you know,

The small family farm where there was much more control

Over who you paid and how much they got paid.

I think there's a sense now that everybody is deeply

Interdependent in this entire supply chain.

Agriculture's doing great as long as you're not a farmer.

There's been, become such a disconnect over the last 30

Years between the ultimate point of sale

And the actual production.

If someone asks me, you know, what do you do for a living, I

Tell them I'm a farmer, it's almost like a joke.

'Cause, you know, there's not many people my age doing it

Anymore.

But it's really cool, something to do, you know?

You watch something grow every day.

Commercial tomato growing in Florida is essentially a

High-stakes gamble.

If everything goes right, if the market conditions are

Right, if there's not too many competing tomatoes coming in

From Mexico, they can make a bundle.

But if there's a freeze, as there is, seems every other

Year, they can be wiped out.

All the older guys keep saying that they've never seen it

This bad.

They've never seen it this bad.

My dad's been doing it for 28 years, he says this is the

Worst he's ever seen it.

This season's been so rough that if it keeps going on at

This rate, we're just going to have to shut down.

You've got the system where supermarkets have enormous

Buying power, you know?

By their existence, they shape the whole system.

But despite having that power, the supermarkets don't want to

Be growing the food themselves, they certainly

Don't want to be hiring the farm workers.

They don't want to take on the risk of actually producing the

Foods that get delivered to consumers.

At the beginning of the season, Jacob will sell his

Tomatoes through a contract he'd sign with the

Supermarket.

But the supermarket was soon able to buy tomatoes from

Mexico at a price that Jacob couldn't match.

It would now cost Jacob a lot more money to harvest and pack

His crop than to let it rot.

Sucks to have to tell 60 people from here and 100

People from the farm that we don't have anything for them

To do.

You know they, they worked all year long to, you know, plant

The plants and stake them and tie them and prune them and do

Everything that's involved, and then when it comes time

For them to start making money, you know, which is

Essentially when we're harvesting, now we can't even

Harvest them.

It cost us three times what it cost us a little over a decade

Ago to grow tomatoes.

You don't see that translated into a difference, uh, at the

Retail level.

Over the last three decades, as production costs like

Seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, machinery and

Fuel have increased, supermarkets have demanded

That farmers maintain their prices, thereby dramatically

Cutting into farmers' profits.

But supermarkets haven't always wielded such power over

The market.

The supermarket industry remained relatively stable

Into the sixties, uh, and into the seventies.

Then in the 1980's, Wal-Mart decides to get into the

Grocery business.

Wal-Mart took the model that was being pioneered by kroger

And publix and some others in the seventies and really

Rewrites the rules of the game.

Wal-Mart came onto the scene and upended the system by

Buying in larger quantities and offering produce to

Customers at drastically lower prices.

In order to compete with Wal-Mart's prices, the

Industry was forced to consolidate, leaving only a

Few large competitors in an industry that used to have

Hundreds.

Every single one of these supermarket chains, from

Publix to kroger to, to stop & shop and giant,

Not just Wal-Mart.

All of them, you know, thirty-forty years ago

Weren't, were either not there or just starting.

But in the space of those few decades, they've become these

Massive, you know, $25 billion behemoths.

Because now, hundreds of thousands of farmers have only

A handful of supermarkets to sell their produce to.

These supermarkets have a historically unprecedented

Amount of power.

When a company is able to dictate the pricing structure

Down its entire supply chain,

A free market no longer exists.

Economists call this un-free market a monopsony.

It's not the supermarkets telling workers out in the

Fields "you must do this," it's supermarkets having

Contracts with farm owners or other intermediaries who then

Have to figure out how to get those demands met.

The buyers create this pressure that makes it

Impossible for the industry to work in a normal way.

In order to be able to produce more, you have to push the

Workers to work faster for less pay

Or for stagnant wages.

So if you think about it, they are creating the poverty

Of immokalee.

So they have an obligation to help us to eliminate this.

It's a supply chain that everyone's linked together,

But you know, the chink at one end of the chain never really

Connects to the one all the way at the other end.

Hello, can I ask how you're doing today?

I'm doing pretty good.

Yeah.

I was a little tired yesterday when we finished the day, but

Um, this morning I'm really, really energized.

I'm hoping for publix to do the right thing.

[Cars honking]

Publix was founded in 1930 by George Jenkins,

A Florida entrepreneur.

Like Sam walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, Jenkins began

With a single store and built a multi-billion dollar empire.

Today, publix has annual sales of almost $30 billion, and the

Company has become so successful in Florida that

Three out of four people in the state live within two

Miles of a publix supermarket.

When you live here in Florida, you know, publix pretty much

The grocery store.

Where shopping is a pleasure.

It's not just something we say; It's in everything we do.

And part of what makes shopping a pleasure

Is saving money.

Publix has a good reputation for caring for its own

Customers and its employees.

As nice as it is to have an extra hand, it's great to have

Some extra change too.

So you'd think that caring for the people in the supply chain

Wouldn't be that much of a leap.

Publix: Where shopping is a pleasure.

Well, there was this pond between where the coalition

Was having its fast a-and the headquarters, and the

Employees would come out on their lunch hours and sit and

Kind of look over at these people.

I guess they would have their lunch while they watched

People fast.

It's ironic in the worst way.

Publix spends hundreds of millions of dollars billing

Itself as your friendly neighborhood grocery store.

"We're your neighbors."

And yet it won't talk with part of the community that's

Very much their neighbors.

The people who pick their tomatoes.

Basically, they're paid per bucket picked.

They take them over to a truck, throw them up to this

Guy on the truck who dumps the tomatoes in...

And then he hands them a little chit.

At the end of the day, the chits are totaled.

Over the course of an average work day, workers pick, carry

And throw about 4000 pounds of tomatoes, earning them

Approximately $40 a day, or a little over a penny for each

Of those pounds.

That's why the cow is asking publix to pay just a penny

More per pound to double farm worker wages.

Doing this would cost publix about $1 million out of their

$2 billion in annual profits.

If publix chose to pass on these costs, a family of four

Would only need to pay an extra 44 cents per year for

Their tomatoes.

See you tomorrow!

[Car honks]

California produces more fresh fruit and vegetables than any

Other state.

It has more migrant farm workers than any other state.

A certain kind of exploitation of migrant labor was perfected

In California, so I think if you're really going to

Understand farm labor in the United States, you have to

Understand what's happened in California.

California's farm economy has always relied on ultra-low

Wage workers.

First, the mission fathers enslaved native Americans.

It evolved into a predominately Latino labor

Force, recruited legally from Mexico.

In the 1960's, this labor force, after centuries, found

A powerful voice for change.

In 1965, the workers in the fields said "we're fed up with"

Being the worst paid workers in America.

"We're fed up with being exploited"

And they went on strike.

Cesar Chavez was a farm worker who got fed up with the abuse

Of farm workers in the lettuce fields of California, and

Helped create the first farm worker union in the united

States, the united farm workers' union.

And the united farm workers' union had a profound impact on

Improving the lives of farm workers throughout California.

Farm workers realized that they could gain power by

Organizing a union.

The u.F.W. Soon achieved historic wage increases and created

Support nationwide for farm workers' rights.

While running for president in 1968,

Robert f. Kennedy visited California and ended an historic

Hunger strike with Cesar Chavez.

What was your discussion with Cesar this morning?

I just, uh, just spoke about today and that, uh, that he's

Hopeful that uh, that the efforts that so many of them

Are making are going to be successful.

I was cofounder of the union with Cesar.

I was the strike captain, picket captain, organizer,

Political director, negotiator...

At one point in time, we were able to get up to 100,000 farm

Workers organized.

[Chanting]

Then, of course there was a lot of hostility

Against the union.

Many of those contracts were lost and they were not able to

Regain them.

[Screaming]

Chavez!

During the 1980's, the governor of California made it more

Difficult for farm workers to organize, crippling the u.F.W..

Wages fell and working conditions got worse.

Even in the state's wealthiest agricultural region,

Napa valley.

Without an organization to defend basic rights, farm

Workers are vulnerable to exploitation whether they're

Part of a supply chain that delivers goods to a

Supermarket or one that produces luxury items

Like wine.

There's no other place on the planet where all of the

Variables that you need to produce consistently, like,

The most excellent wine, they don't exist consistently

Anywhere else in the world.

It's the ideal location to grow every type of

Grape variety.

We are America's premiere wine-growing region.

We're second to none in the world.

Well, I used to say to my staff that we're basically

Fancy farmers.

I love tomatoes, and I love strawberries, but I think

Wine's a little fancier.

The wine industry can be a good financial proposition for

A wine grower.

It is the number one valued finished agricultural product

In the state of California.

When you go buy a bottle of wine for $40, $150, $200 a

Bottle, the cost of labor that brings you that bottle of wine

Is about 25 cents.

The landscape may be beautiful in napa, and along coastal

Florida, but often the beauty of the landscape disguises

This incredible poverty that's right there.

I've seen the evolution of napa valley first-hand.

What brought me to the napa valley was my father.

He became President of the united farm workers' union in

Napa valley.

It was a very different scene then than it is now.

Today we have two cultures that coexist parallel to each

Other, but rarely is there a bridge.

There is still sort of that sense of, um...

You know, them and us.

The beauty of napa valley, the weather, the uh, all of this

Amazing wines, and the great food.

It has been the demise of affordable housing, because

Everyone wants to live in napa valley.

We have, out of 65, fewer than 5 employees who live in

The valley.

They have to commute in from long distances.

There are more millionaires in napa than people who are

Unemployed.

In an inflated real estate market, it's always hard to

Find affordable housing, but during harvest season when the

Number of farm workers in napa doubles,

It's almost impossible.

Housing has been the number one social issue in the

County.

More people came to our front door looking for housing than

They did for spiritual solace.

These are not homeless bums.

These are people who are working eight, ten, twelve

Hours a day and still have to sleep outside because of the

Low wages and because of the absence of affordable housing

In napa.

You can have legal apartheid which says if you're a person

Of color, you can't live here in this community.

Or you can have economic apartheid.

When their shift is over, they're supposed to go live

Somewhere else.

This rural poverty is hiding in plain sight.

These are poor workers working half a mile from some of the

Most expensive houses and luxurious resorts in the

United States.

Taste napa valley is the true party for the napa valley

Vintners.

It's hard to describe what takes place in this room,

Because it's so energetic.

Woo!

We have an auction every year which raises

Millions of dollars.

Bid high, bid often!

It's all for charity!

$100,000!

The bid's here at $100,000, who's going to come in at 120?

Outside our front door is the most important thing to us,

And we want to bring all of our fortune back to the people

Who really live here and really need the benefit of

These auctions.

I mean, it's a great combination of people who want

To make the equality of life better for everybody.

According to the napa valley vintners' association, over

The past few decades, the auction has raised about

$4 million a year.

I think it's great if someone wants to donate money to a

Charity that helps farm workers.

But ultimately, we're not talking about charity here.

We're talking about thousands of workers who are responsible

For a multi-billion dollar industry in napa.

They're entitled to be paid well.

I grew up in a very small town

Where we're all indigenous people.

I heard that in the united states I could make enough

Money and go to school, but that didn't happen.

I came here in 2000, and I have to pay a little bit more

Than 2000 American money to pay for the coyote that

Introduced people illegally to the United States.

There are something around 3,000,000 farm workers in the

United States today.

Probably a substantial majority of those farm workers

At this point are undocumented.

Being undocumented means that you do not have the full

Protections of the law, so you're highly likely to avoid

Challenging unfair, even unlawful working conditions

Because you run the risk that your employer might see to put

You in deportation.

In 1994, four and a half million people, um, lived in

The United States who were born in Mexico.

In 2008, the Mexican-born population in the united

States tripled.

Overwhelmingly because of the displacement of workers and

Farmers in Mexico by large-scale economic changes.

In 1994, the north American free trade agreement went into

Effect, eliminating many trade restrictions between Mexico

And the United States.

Nafta caused the price of crops like corn and coffee to

Plummet in Mexico, driving millions of farmers there

Into bankruptcy.

A burning tractor in Mexico city's Plaza of the

Revolution.

Part of a last-ditch effort by Mexican farm workers who say

Their livelihoods are going up in smoke.

Poverty on the farms is pushing more would-be migrants

To look for work in the United States.

Migration is not a, uh, a voluntary choice.

We force people into migration.

Force people into motion.

People come here because this is where the work is, and then

Our immigration policy, I think, deliberately makes

Their labor cheap by denying them legal status.

Angel was born and raised in oaxaca, one of the poorest

Regions in Mexico.

He later grew coffee in his family's farm, but nafta

Helped to put the family farm out of business, and so angel

Came to the United States.

He hoped to find work picking vegetables.

The coffee price went so low that it didn't make sense to

Work for a whole year and at the end of the season, not get

Anything back.

Angel was a farm worker for nearly a decade when he met

Caitlin, whom he began working with to start an organic

Chicken farm.

I was playing soccer and out friend brought him to my

Soccer game, and he didn't speak much English at the time

And I didn't speak much Spanish, and we kind of said

"Hello, nice to meet you" and, and that was it.

Yeah, when we started dating, I would bring her like a whole

Flood of strawberries that I picked myself, you know, lots

Of vegetables and...

Yeah, or he would show up at my doorstep, and instead of

With a bouquet of flowers, he would have, like, a broccoli.

[Laughing]

It was cute.

That's our guard dog, migra.

We name her as, as a joke, because migra means a border

Patrol and the job of a border patrol is to chase coyotes.

So that's her job, to chase coyotes.

That's why we called her migra.

Migra, come on!

[Dog barks]

Angel's been living in the United States for 15 years,

And married to Caitlin for three, but he still hasn't

Been able to gain legal status.

Most people are aware that most farm workers in the

United States come here from other countries, and we have a

Very schizophrenic public attitude right now where on

The one hand, we are dependent on the labor of farm workers

To put food on the table, and yet, um, people are demonized

Because of the fact that they were born somewhere else.

You can't find U.S. citizens who are willing

To do this kind of work.

I mean, you can't pay them enough to, to work this hard

And in this physical of a way.

I think there's definitely a space for some, some gratitude

Towards the people who are doing the hard work of growing

The food, whoever they might be.

There are 200,000,000 in the world who are living outside

The countries where they were born.

So there is a tremendous flow of workers from poor countries

To rich countries.

And this has become very important to the economies of

Industrialized countries, partly because it's a very

Low-wage labor.

People often look at farm worker issues as an

Immigration issue.

It's more than an immigration issue.

It's a human rights issue.

If you look at the history of agriculture in our country,

It started with slave labor.

It started with, uh, let's exploit the weakest group.

An immigration reform policy that doesn't look at what the

Economic roots of immigration are, I think, is a joke.

When slavery was abolished, farmers became obligated to

Pay their workers, but there were plenty of desperate

People willing to work for next to nothing

In the United States.

Growers have used wave after wave after wave of migration

As the source of labor, um, to make the system work.

Again and again and again, it's people from ethnic

Minorities.

It is the search for a new peasantry.

Constantly searching for a new group to exploit.

We can end that cycle by creating wages and working

Conditions that are decent.

Immokalee farm workers are not giving up.

The coalition of immokalee workers is focusing on publix,

Saying they want them to put people before profit.

Workers are asking for one cent more per pound of

Tomatoes to end what they say is Florida's harvest of shame.

It's just workers uniting for respect.

The coalition simply wants publix to come and talk.

Farm workers believe making progress with publix is

Crucial for striking agreements with other major

Supermarket chains across the country.

Immokalee farm workers were turned away at the door of the

Publix headquarters when they tried to talk to the ceo about

Pay wages.

Publix said in their official statement "since first"

Approached by the cow three years ago, we have

"Consistently viewed this issue as a labor dispute."

Publix pays fair-market value for the tomatoes.

We view this as a labor dispute, and we don't get

Involved in those.

They say it's the responsibility of their

Suppliers to monitor the working conditions and manage

Their work force.

What publix is saying is not correct, because they are the

Ones who have the power to control the market.

It's a supply chain.

Everyone is connected.

Publix is at the top, and the decisions they make can create

Terrible conditions at the bottom of the chain.

The struggle for fundamental human rights isn't limited

Simply to the fields here in the United States.

Workers at the base of any of these massive supply chains

That exist around the world face the same struggles we do.

At least 118 people have been killed in a massive fire at a

Garment factory in Bangladesh.

The fire broke out at night as hundreds of garment workers

Were on overtime shifts, producing clothes bound for

Some major American retailers, including Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is now blaming the use of this factory on a

Rogue supplier.

And Wal-Mart's culpability is enormous.

They're the largest buyer from Bangladesh,

So they make the market.

Why would you even consider putting human beings in a

Building that could collapse?

Because in the end, they aren't people to you.

They are just a means to make money, and a means for profit.

That's all they are.

In the 21st century, the responsibility for protecting

Workers' rights has to be shared by the corporations who

Control the supply chains where those workers toil,

And slowly we're seeing huge multibillion dollar companies

Forced to recognize their own responsibility and, and change

The way they do business.

After serious allegations of forced overtime, under-aged

Labor, after explosions and chemicals killed and harmed

Workers over there...

Tech giant apple and its manufacturer foxconn have

Agreed to address workplace violations affecting workers

Who make apple products in China.

It doesn't matter if it's computers or fields here in

The U.S.

Human rights violations at the base of your supply chain are

Your responsibility.

Workers are suffering at the bottom.

Publix is creating that misery.

There are many that we support in the town of immokalee, and

Many of the farm workers benefit from the generosity of

Publix supermarkets' charities.

The farm workers' group vows to

Keep up the pressure on publix.

Though it seems they're at an impasse, protestors remain

Confident their message will be heard.

Workers at the base of almost every supply chain in America

Are guaranteed at least the minimum wage to the federal

Labor standards act of 1938.

Farm workers, who at the time were predominately

African-American, were excluded from this bill in

Order to secure its passage.

It took more than 40 years for them to be included

In this law.

You gotta sign.

In an industry where paydays happen in a parking lot and

Are administered by middlemen like labor contractors,

Wage theft is not uncommon.

Even when farm workers do get minimum wage, they remain far

Below the poverty line.

We know our economy's stronger when we reward an honest day's

Work with honest wages.

But today, a full time worker making the minimum wage earns

$14,500 a year.

Even with the tax relief we put in place.

A family with two kids that earns the minimum wage still

Lives below the poverty line.

Tonight, let's declare that in the wealthiest nation on

Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in

Poverty and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour.

[Applause]

When people have been in poverty, they don't feel as

Able to voice their resistance to things, 'cause they've

Already been beaten down in a class system, which has

Disabled their voice.

Farm workers who complain face the very real threat of being

Fired and slipping further below the poverty line.

Because this industry doesn't effectively police itself,

Government oversight is essential,

But is sorely lacking.

Florida has only 14 labor inspectors, for example, to

Monitor over 40,000 farms.

It is an impossible task to take care of every instance of

Abuse that goes on in the fields.

It's like you have all the crime that you always have in

New York City, and you have two or three cops on the

Entire beat.

They're not going to be able to do anything.

Now that's what it is in the fields today.

It's a like New York City crime spree without any cops.

Only a fourth of the work force in agriculture is women.

Usually the, the farm owners, the supervisors, the managers,

They're all male.

Sexual harassment is a problem for women everywhere.

25% of American women report experiencing sexual harassment

In the workplace.

In the isolated environments of the fields however, this

Figure is believed to be closer to 80%.

Look, it's, it's insane that anyone's experiencing sexual

Harassment, but to look at those numbers is an indication

Of what happens when we have women who are poor...

They have children and families to feed.

And so they can be easily, um, harassed.

Because they need the income.

For a woman in the field to be able to voice what's happened

To her is crucial, but then to see repercussions and to see

Somebody being held accountable for that and to

See justice.

We need systems that are more efficient and that get to

Justice in a quicker, more immediate way.

In the last five years, there has been interest from select

U.S. senators in investigating the physical and economic

Exploitation of farm workers.

But there's been no legislative action as of yet.

An informal hearing was held in 2008 to give farm workers a

Voice in exposing the worst human rights violations, like

Modern-day slavery.

Today we are a very long way away from immokalee, Florida.

Thankfully, due to the dedication and hard work of a

Number of people, including the coalition of immokalee

Workers, the conditions that exist in the Florida tomato

Fields have begun to come to light.

I'm very pleased that Lucas benitez, a co-founder of the

Coalition, could be with us today to shed even more light

On the subject.

Between 1997 and 2010, more than 1,200 farm workers were

Freed from slavery in Southern Florida.

Some of the workers were U.S. citizens, and in 2007, a

Slavery ring was discovered in immokalee.

Two brothers, Cesar and geovanni navarrete, lead a

Slavery operation.

Luring poor farm workers with the promise of food, housing

And jobs.

Unbeknownst to the workers, the navarretes were charging

An exorbitant amount for room and board.

Over several months, the workers accumulated large,

False debts and threatened to leave.

In retaliation, the navarrete brothers beat them and kept

Them confined at night to the back of a u-haul truck.

After a year of slavery, one worker noticed a small hole

Had formed in the roof of the u-haul.

He managed to push through and escape.

Senator Sanders and I happened to be in immokalee Florida

This January when the U.S. department of justice released

Its indictment in the latest slavery case there.

Here are some details from that case.

The defendants have been accused of threatening,

Slapping and kicking farm workers.

Chaining them to a pole.

Beating them.

Locking them inside u-haul trailers.

Keeping them in debt and forcing them to work for free.

The indictments read like something you might see in the

Year 1868, not the year 2008.

These abuses are un-American.

They are unacceptable, and they must stop.

Thank you.

The law establishes that slavery is a crime.

The law establishes that sexual harassment is a crime.

But we still see all of these things happen.

Why?

It's not a question of how beautiful it sounds in the

Books.

It is a question of how effective that enforcement

Mechanisms are.

The coalition began with just a handful of guys meeting in a

Back room of the local catholic church in the early

'90's, just to discuss things that weren't quite right.

And from then, it, it grew slowly.

Immokalee farm workers take their protest to the streets

And their anger and frustration is caught on tape.

Now farm workers are uniting stronger than ever

Against violence in southwest Florida's vegetable fields.

And they want to send a message to the farm bosses

That abuse won't be tolerated.

The cow held dozens of protests between 1995 and

2000, including a month-long hunger strike and a 230-mile

March that called upon local farmers to pay higher wages.

The farmers said "we can't pay you anymore because we're"

Squeezed just like you."

So somebody at the coalition, just at one of their weekly

Little gab sessions says "well, why don't we take it to

The end buyer?"

The cow created the fair food program, which placed the

Responsibility of fair wages and conditions for workers on

The big buyers of tomatoes rather than the farmers.

They focused this new campaign on taco bell and its Mexican

Chihuahua mascot.

[Shouting in Spanish]

Taco bell is profiting from sweat shops right here in

Florida!

Not only did the cow demand an extra penny per pound for

Wages.

They also created a code of conduct to force buyers to

Take responsibility for human rights violations within their

Supply chain.

Buyers like taco bell would no longer be able to purchase

Tomatoes from farmers who broke the code.

We spent four or five years picketing, demonstrating, and

Eventually taco bell came aboard.

After taco bell joined the fair food program, ten other

Huge multi-national corporations soon joined as

Well, including burger king, McDonalds, chipotle, and

Trader Joe's.

Farm workers had finally won some influence within the

System.

Once we started to focus on the big buyers, there was

Something that started to change in the industry, and we

Became a little problem for the big corporations.

These corporations spend hundreds of millions of

Dollars creating an image.

Whether it's a friendly clown or a little girl with red pig

Tails or a chihuahua that talks to you, and that's what

They have at stake.

You can go to almost any fast food outlet.

Any chain restaurant, and you're eating a fair-food

Tomato.

But there's still a huge hole.

And that is supermarket chains.

They're getting the job done.

It's gone from an imaginary thing to something that's in

The fields and working very successfully today.

Since its inception, the fair food program has channeled

Over $11 million in extra pennies to workers.

It has provided a way for women to report harassment

Without fear of retribution and it has eliminated slavery

On the farms that work with the cow.

I see this as a completely unique way to approach labor

Relations in agriculture that no one has, no one has done it

This way.

And it can be a template, I think, for other industries.

For the first time, a publix executive has shown up at the

Hunger strike.

Shannon patton, publix's spokesperson, is just 100

Yards away from the protestors.

Lucas has been warned that if he tries to speak to her, he

Will be arrested.

What would happen if you just walked over there and talked

To Shannon?

Yeah, then, let's just stand at the edge, I'll wave them

Over, and let's just say

"Can you tell Shannon to come here."

It's like, there's two people.

Just talk.

If you go there and I happen to talk to, I talk to Shannon

Right here?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Yeah.

Yeah, if you go there and ask, yeah, absolutely.

I guess I'll be right back.

Yeah.

[Speaking in Spanish through a megaphone]

There is a long and proud history of creative

Nonviolence in this country.

What creative nonviolence does is it draws out the essential

Character of the person on the other side.

By ignoring farm workers and religious people and students

Who all gathered and did this simple sacrifice, publix

Demonstrated the kind of disdain that they've shown

Farm workers behind the scenes for decades.

I'm tired, but with these two kids and my wife, my bar is

Here, so I'm physical tired but not, not in my heart.

Not in my spirit.

Yeah.

Exactly 44 years earlier to the day,

Robert f. Kennedy had ended a hunger strike with Cesar Chavez

In California.

Part of the Kennedy family's long legacy of activism on

Behalf of the farm workers.

What message are you sending out by coming out this

Afternoon?

That, uh, people want fairness, and social justice.

Ladies and gentlemen, with you, kerry Kennedy.

I want to address my remarks today not to all of the

Wonderful people here, but to the owners of publix.

The farm workers have fasted for justice and for truth and

They have spoken truth to power.

Surely, if the farm workers can go without food for six

Days, you can provide zero tolerance for sexual

Harassment.

You can stop the slavery, and you can provide a

Penny per pound.

[Cheering and applause]

Ladies and gentlemen, Bobby Kennedy junior.

The battle you're fighting, is a battle not just to get

Higher wages for these workers, but it's a battle

Against a corporate culture that says that our margins

Transcend any kind of morality.

We have to resist the seduction of the notion that

We can advance ourselves as a people by leaving our poor

Brothers and sisters behind.

If we cannot win this fight, we have lost the soul of

America.

[Chanting "we'll be back"]

[Peaceful music]

*

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.

This is not something that farm workers are

Asking as a favor.

It is thanks to the hard work of thousands and thousands of

Workers in this nation that food end up in their tables.

I ask every consumer to take into consideration the fact

That you can do something about this to make people's

Lives better.

If you eat, you are affected.

Everybody should be concerned with where our food comes from

And who picks it.

When I think of the great problems that this country is

Facing and how difficult some of them are going to be to solve,

This isn't one of them.

[Folk music]

* California, Arizona

* I harvest your crops

* then it's north up to Oregon *

* to gather your hops

* dig the beets from the ground *

* cut the grapes from the vine *

* to set on your table

* that light sparkling wine *

* it's always we ramble

* this river and I

* all along your green valley *

* I work 'til I die

* my land I'll defend

* with my life if it be

* 'cause our pastures of plenty *

* must always be free

*

*