Take Action: Demand Justice for Florida's Farmworkers

Demand Justice for Florida's Farmworkers

For decades, Florida's farmworkers have faced terrible abuses and brutal exploitation. Workers earn sub-poverty wages, work 60-70 hours per week, and are denied the basic right to form a union to negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

Some have even been chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay.

Yet for decades, Florida's governors have turned a blind eye to this abuse. Take a stand for Florida's farmworkers: demand that Governor Crist end worker abuse in the Sunshine State.

Subject:

Dear Governor Crist,

(Edit Letter Below)

In December of last year, the Department of Justice concluded yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida. I am writing today to demand that you use every resource at your command to ensure that it be the last such case ever in Florida's fields.

According to court documents, workers in this latest case were chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay.

Yet, when a reporter called your office for comment on the most recent case, your spokesperson, Terrence McElroy, gave the impression that one forced labor case per year is no cause for alarm.

As the leader of the state and the single most powerful voice for the protection of every Floridian's fundamental human rights, you must repudiate the words of your spokesperson, and do so with no further delay.

Additionally, I join my voice to those of thousands of other concerned consumers of Florida produce to call upon you to:

1. Publicly condemn the existence of modern-day slavery in Florida;

2. Commit the full power of your office to immediately and comprehensively address the plague of abuse and forced labor in Florida's fields by:

a. Meeting with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and federal officials who prosecute these cases, and

b. Demanding that the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange renounce its opposition to implementing the agreements that socially responsible fast food and supermarket companies have signed to ensure better pay and working conditions for tomato pickers, so as to eliminate the conditions that give rise to forced labor.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

[Your name]
[Your address]

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Governor Charlie Crist

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Demand Justice for Florida's Farmworkers

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