Speaker 1: In Part one of our conversation about immigration issues, we
Speaker 1: looked at worker conditions in poultry processing facilities and one
Speaker 1: of the news headlines that shook the nation in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nineteen. In Part two, we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about the work that's being done to move towards a
Speaker 1: more just path forward that works for everyone in our
Speaker 1: food system, especially the most vulnerable workers. We're gonna look
Speaker 1: at some policies in the works to stop the abuse
Speaker 1: we seldom hear about happening in processing plants, fields, and
Speaker 1: even fast food chains. I'm Tom Coluchio, and this is
Speaker 1: citizen chef. People who grow and process our food should
Speaker 1: have more power than most workers. But for generations now,
Speaker 1: these workers have been marginalized and by our federal government.
Speaker 1: Strong workers don't go on strike, they haven't said since
Speaker 1: like Chavez. They don't have the kind of power that
Speaker 1: they should have. The they're not able to negotiate or
Speaker 1: enter into negotiations are to have a contract. There's no
Speaker 1: collective bargaining and there's no way that there's no way
Speaker 1: to negotiat I mean Morcaly workers did that. They negotiated
Speaker 1: for a penny extra bushel. Well, we have been UH
Speaker 1: seeing a lot of changes due to the what we
Speaker 1: called the Campaign for for Food that's Horado cheveez reas
Speaker 1: the Coalition of Morchly Workers, which started after almost a
Speaker 1: decade of the Coalition of Moocaar Workers focusing on bringing
Speaker 1: the growers to to negotiate and talk about how to
Speaker 1: eliminate situations of verbal and physical abuse that we're very
Speaker 1: common according to US Southern Property Law Center study that
Speaker 1: came out a few years ago of women were facing
Speaker 1: situations of sexual harassment and or assault in the fields
Speaker 1: UH and modern day slavery where workers have been forced
Speaker 1: to work at conpoint in some cases and the threats
Speaker 1: of that against them and their families also in different
Speaker 1: investigations that we have conducted by working with the FBI,
Speaker 1: the Department of Justice. So we have been able to
Speaker 1: create the solution for that, and I'm going to get
Speaker 1: into that in a bit, but those were the goals
Speaker 1: that the c was pursuing, along with an increasing wages.
Speaker 1: As you were mentioning, we were demanding for a penny
Speaker 1: more per pound of tomatoes that were harvested and ended
Speaker 1: up in corporations that we were asking to join onto
Speaker 1: the Fair Food program. You know that worked because the
Speaker 1: public got behind it. It was a good messaging campaign.
Speaker 1: I mean they went they went after the Burger Kings
Speaker 1: and McDonald's of the world and the Wendy's the world
Speaker 1: and said, you know, you're not willing to back one
Speaker 1: penny per bushel. You'll have a zero effect on your
Speaker 1: bottom line and I'll have a major effect on the workers. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean. One of the things that we did was
Speaker 1: to create a theory of change um and the theory was,
Speaker 1: or states stated that corporations and the market as a
Speaker 1: whole was being used to drive prices down because that's
Speaker 1: how they operate. They buy in huge amounts the tomatoes
Speaker 1: they need in this case, and other vegetables that we
Speaker 1: also harvest, and we ask these corporations to participate with
Speaker 1: us to buy under the conditioning of zero tolerance for
Speaker 1: modern days labory happening in the fields, which means they
Speaker 1: would have to commit to cut purchases if any case
Speaker 1: of modern days labory was to take place in any
Speaker 1: of the farms that were supplying them, along with the
Speaker 1: payment of a plenty more per pounds and a list
Speaker 1: of other rights that would result that eventually in the
Speaker 1: elimination of modern days labor in the fields, but also
Speaker 1: a dramatic decrease in situations of sexual harassment and the
Speaker 1: elimination of sexual assault. I'll share a little bit about
Speaker 1: one of the LASS cases that took place in Florida,
Speaker 1: actually a few blocks away from the office UM where
Speaker 1: we where we have been organized UM for for many,
Speaker 1: many years. UH. This case involved workers who were forced
Speaker 1: to sleep inside a cargo truck. They were locked with
Speaker 1: a padlock actually inside this rockers punishment, and there was
Speaker 1: a padlock used to keep them inside, but there was
Speaker 1: also change that were literally used to tie them up
Speaker 1: just to show the rest of the crew who was
Speaker 1: in control. These workers were taken two different farms and
Speaker 1: they were without access. They were living without access to
Speaker 1: a bathroom for example. You know, you know some something
Speaker 1: like that would mean that if you needed to actually
Speaker 1: use a bathroom, you would have to just like hold
Speaker 1: it until they let you out or UM going the
Speaker 1: same corner that that's horrible. That's a way in which
Speaker 1: people have stripped of their dignity and their humanity. Were
Speaker 1: producing the food that ends up in everybody's plaits, and
Speaker 1: many people don't know that. So so in these situation,
Speaker 1: workers escape. One of them pushed his way through with
Speaker 1: the help of the others, through the roof of this
Speaker 1: old you hold type of truck and brought a ladder
Speaker 1: to help worker escape. Two of those workers came to
Speaker 1: our office and talk to me and another one of
Speaker 1: my colleagues. They showed us the bruises that they huddle
Speaker 1: over their body and their legs and in their bags,
Speaker 1: the product of the biddings that they beat, things that
Speaker 1: they were suffering at the vance of these crew leaders
Speaker 1: that are now in prison. In total for these cases
Speaker 1: that I mentioned, and there's been nine investigations, eight prosecutions,
Speaker 1: more than one thousand, two hundred workers that have been
Speaker 1: freed from these conditions, and fifteen bosses that have gone
Speaker 1: to federal prison. That's what we're talking about here, and
Speaker 1: it is not a problem as it has been described
Speaker 1: sometimes prior to the agreements that we have reached with
Speaker 1: the agricultural industry. The tomato growers represented on the Florida
Speaker 1: Tomato Growers Exchange um about a problem of a few
Speaker 1: but apples. It was a problem in which the industry
Speaker 1: needed to pay attention in how they were treating their workers.
Speaker 1: In a systemic way. So so a systemic solution was needed.
Speaker 1: And that's why we are decided to bring the market
Speaker 1: to to work with us to condition they're purchasing and
Speaker 1: use the power to to put a step to that crime.
Speaker 1: Right her alight? I heard you say a few times
Speaker 1: that some of the bosses were put in jail. Um,
Speaker 1: what happened to the companies? Did they take any any
Speaker 1: responsibility or any of the CEOs? Uh, you know, for
Speaker 1: these companies? Were they punished all? How far up to
Speaker 1: the scale? That's an excellent question because it gives me
Speaker 1: the opportunity to a little bit about why it is
Speaker 1: important to use the market. In that case, we as
Speaker 1: workers were trying to bring the growers to to the table,
Speaker 1: and uh, what happens. What happens is that the growers
Speaker 1: didn't burn any responsibility. They would simply just come out
Speaker 1: publicly and say, look, this is nothing to do this
Speaker 1: has this has nothing to do with us. This is
Speaker 1: just a few apples. I was the response. And legally
Speaker 1: it wasn't the responsibility. You know, the law would go
Speaker 1: only to to make arrests of those who were directly
Speaker 1: hiring people, bringing them and threatening them and bidding them
Speaker 1: and all of those abusive conditions that are part of
Speaker 1: these cases, and uh the industry would simply just wash
Speaker 1: their hands because they would would not be asked to
Speaker 1: go to court. Um. Yes, So what's what's the relationship
Speaker 1: between the growers and and these these field bosses. It
Speaker 1: used to be UH that the crew leaders which is
Speaker 1: how we call them, those who go and contract people
Speaker 1: in the community, uh, served as a firewall of sorts.
Speaker 1: They would be considered independent entities, therefore making it possible
Speaker 1: for the industry to say, look, it is not our responsibility.
Speaker 1: We just hired this guy. This guy brings the people,
Speaker 1: and we don't know And when we ask, well, how
Speaker 1: is it that you don't know how the people that
Speaker 1: are working in your company are treated? That's just unconscionable.
Speaker 1: So that's why we brought that also as one of
Speaker 1: the points that we are now implementing with the growers
Speaker 1: under the Fair Food program, which is the direct hiring
Speaker 1: that brings the responsibility to the door steps of whoever
Speaker 1: is uh the uh the person in charge of those
Speaker 1: UH companies, those agricultural companies. Right, So these are just
Speaker 1: these are contracted workers. They weren't actually employed by the company.
Speaker 1: Um No, But in order to eliminate that abuse and
Speaker 1: every other abuse that takes place in the fields, we
Speaker 1: needed to bring that kind of responsibility and and make
Speaker 1: that connection, you know, as that the growers to take
Speaker 1: responsibility by hiring directly every worker and in that in
Speaker 1: that new way of doing, that more normal way, I
Speaker 1: should say, because it is how it happens in most places.
Speaker 1: Um that the growers are now paying a lot of
Speaker 1: attention and working with us. So we're in this partnership
Speaker 1: with them since two thousand eleven when we brought at
Speaker 1: that point fourteen corporations up to now that are working
Speaker 1: with a Stacco, Bell, McDonald's were working some of the
Speaker 1: bigger names, but also from the supermarket industry, trader Joe
Speaker 1: seven Walmer is working with us. So that gives us
Speaker 1: is the power or gave us a power to change
Speaker 1: those conditions by bringing the suppliers and bringing the buyers
Speaker 1: of those tomatoes to to sit together with us and
Speaker 1: reach disagreements to condition the purchasing to the implementation of
Speaker 1: the rights that were desperately needed by our people. Where
Speaker 1: where is oceans had to play here, the fair Food
Speaker 1: program basically brings to life laws that were dormant. The
Speaker 1: laws that you know aim to protect workers in regards
Speaker 1: to the minimum wage payment that that every worker should receive.
Speaker 1: Whenever you're working by peace but are not able to
Speaker 1: harvest enough, the your employer has to provide for that. UM.
Speaker 1: Those those provisions, including provisions that have to deal with
Speaker 1: health and safety, are observed in farms that are participating
Speaker 1: with us. But outside of those farms, UM, the same
Speaker 1: is not true. There are firms that are trying to
Speaker 1: constantly cheat the system, not do enough for workers, and
Speaker 1: not follow the things that are also readily enforced because
Speaker 1: remember them. Uh, is that just about what the law says,
Speaker 1: is about who's enforcing how And in this case, just
Speaker 1: to give you a sense, not just about OCEA, but
Speaker 1: in general, UM, workers that are vulnerable and afraid and
Speaker 1: and are afraid to lose their job have to deal
Speaker 1: with the question. You know, especially or or or in
Speaker 1: in situations where they are not protected by the perfect program. UM,
Speaker 1: you have to ask yourself a question before you bring
Speaker 1: a complaint, whether it's about OCEA violations, whether it is
Speaker 1: about labor violations, you have to ask yourself as a
Speaker 1: worker do I do I complain knowing that that's the
Speaker 1: right thing to do. Do I complain about sexual harassment
Speaker 1: about which they have, about all of these things that
Speaker 1: put my health and my life at risk, knowing that
Speaker 1: I'm going to be fired? In other words, am I
Speaker 1: willing to reach my ability to feed my kids to
Speaker 1: do the right thing, which is protecting my dignity? And
Speaker 1: the answer that most people would give in a scenario
Speaker 1: like that is no, I cannot afford to lose the
Speaker 1: food for my kids. So so that was the issue
Speaker 1: that we are now tackling with the Fair Food Program. Now.
Speaker 1: It is not perfect in regards to how we're responding
Speaker 1: to the pandemic because it is something that we have
Speaker 1: never uh, we never had to deal with with this, right,
Speaker 1: But the growers inside the Fair Food Program are doing
Speaker 1: everything they can, providing the personal protective equipment, working to
Speaker 1: get all those things that are needed, providing extra transportation
Speaker 1: as I was saying before, but also um, trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, you know, how to respond when workers come
Speaker 1: back positive so that they can provide the housing to
Speaker 1: isolate them. Um. It is, uh, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: work that needs to be done, but but workers are better, UH,
Speaker 1: inside the farms that are participating on the Fair Food
Speaker 1: Program and this collaboration that started since two thousand eleven
Speaker 1: that is applying to about thirty thousand workers. It's helping
Speaker 1: us to be able to create something that didn't exist before.
Speaker 1: You know, we have the ability for workers to form
Speaker 1: part of committees of health and safety, to be able
Speaker 1: to talk about how to improve those approaches, including now
Speaker 1: with COVID nineteen, so that workers are able to protect
Speaker 1: themselves better. But still that doesn't eliminate the vulnerability, which
Speaker 1: is in part why it's important to bring more corporations
Speaker 1: to do the same UH and to fortified all the
Speaker 1: games that the Fair Food Program represents for workers. So
Speaker 1: to two questions, what what large companies are not part
Speaker 1: of fair Food program? Well, right now when this it's UH,
Speaker 1: it's basically UM, the company that we are asking to
Speaker 1: join onto the Fair Food Program, and they recently announced
Speaker 1: in their shareholder meeting that happened a few weeks ago
Speaker 1: UM that they are doing as much as they can,
Speaker 1: but they continue to refuse for workers, they say, and
Speaker 1: they continue to refuse to join the Fair Food Program.
Speaker 1: There's nothing out there they can protect workers as much
Speaker 1: as the Fair Food Program does, and even the Fair
Speaker 1: Food Program needs to to to be readjusted for these
Speaker 1: specific scenario to to to do more. But when this
Speaker 1: is just falling absolutely short UM in in buying from
Speaker 1: greenhouses where outbreaks were registered, UM and and they don't
Speaker 1: have any kind of answer. They just do the the talk.
Speaker 1: But the talking is cheap. You know, this is not
Speaker 1: an issue where everything is about just the numbers, use
Speaker 1: the economics. We are not just statistics, where human means
Speaker 1: and problems that impact the lives of human beings need
Speaker 1: to be treated not as a public relations issue but
Speaker 1: a humans rights issue. And that's what we have. So, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're boycotting when this action. How does one know that
Speaker 1: particular organization UH fast food are uh supermarket? How do
Speaker 1: you know they're participating in the fair food program? UM?
Speaker 1: You can you can be see it UM the website
Speaker 1: of an organization that was created with the purpose of
Speaker 1: UM basically making issue that all the provisions that I
Speaker 1: am talking about are are happening in all the farms
Speaker 1: that are part of part of the Fair Food Program.
Speaker 1: And the name of this organization is the Fair Food
Speaker 1: Standards Council. So it's a fair food standards that or
Speaker 1: I think that's the address and uh what they do
Speaker 1: their whole purpose it's to oversee the implementation of the program,
Speaker 1: to receive complaints from workers with the twenty four seven
Speaker 1: line that workers can call. And there are investigators that
Speaker 1: go to the farms and talk directly to the workers.
Speaker 1: They do additing uh going over fifty percent in in
Speaker 1: in every farm and whenever there there are older operations
Speaker 1: of the workforce is approached by them, which is remarkable.
Speaker 1: You know, the most reputable firms that the claim that
Speaker 1: they have uh don uditing or monitoring. The most reputable
Speaker 1: would say ten at the maximum. And when we're talking
Speaker 1: about companies where you don't have the power of the market,
Speaker 1: like outside of the perfect program um, usually these firms
Speaker 1: work even with the buyers. You know, they're hired by
Speaker 1: companies to try to comap with this notion that everything
Speaker 1: is fine on the ground, but they don't really have
Speaker 1: the power to fix anything under the program. The Purface
Speaker 1: Standards Console has the power of the market of fourteen
Speaker 1: corporations that are ready to exercise the purchasing on their
Speaker 1: conditioning all the implementation of those rights, which gives them
Speaker 1: an incredibly unique power and ability to fix the problems.
Speaker 1: What that translates into is that there has been there
Speaker 1: have been bosses at the beginning of the implementation of
Speaker 1: the program that we're committing abuses and we're committing uh,
Speaker 1: you know, crimes of sexual harassment. All of those issues
Speaker 1: were resolved in in in in a matter of weeks.
Speaker 1: When when you do it through the regular channels, you know,
Speaker 1: when there's a situation of sexual harassment or discrimination that
Speaker 1: EUC will intervene in, sometimes those cases take years to
Speaker 1: be solved. We have helped workers that had to go
Speaker 1: through through the ordeal of dragging these cases and having
Speaker 1: to work in the same place as the perpetrator for years,
Speaker 1: three or four years, and and that's just justice delayed
Speaker 1: and for us as justice denight. So that's why this
Speaker 1: is really important. So, I mean, obviously we know how
Speaker 1: difficult COVID has been, uh you know in the country
Speaker 1: for so many people, for so many workers. Uh. Um,
Speaker 1: do you do you see silver lining at all because
Speaker 1: of COVID? Is it causing bringing attention to some causes
Speaker 1: that that may be easier to um draw attention to
Speaker 1: now because of COVID, are are is just pushing are
Speaker 1: COVID putting you back a few steps? What I see
Speaker 1: it's UH. COVID is not UM the only crisis that
Speaker 1: we have to deal with UM. What we see is
Speaker 1: that COVID is bringing you know, UM up up to
Speaker 1: to to the the eyes of people UH, situations that
Speaker 1: have always existed for works in terms of the vulnerability.
Speaker 1: What I what I think is needed here is a
Speaker 1: collaboration that is aiming to decrease the risks the COVID
Speaker 1: represents UH and and and that requires resources dedicated to
Speaker 1: communities that are suffering. That requires the government taking an
Speaker 1: active role in overseeing and and prioritizing the well being
Speaker 1: of the workforce as supposed to UH the economy. Because
Speaker 1: here in Florida, you know, we we fight for about
Speaker 1: a month since since April, we started to call the
Speaker 1: local UM government, the Department of Health here and in
Speaker 1: in the state UH and created a petition for a
Speaker 1: governor around the scientists that many people endors, many organizations
Speaker 1: were asking for him to to dedicate UM testing and
Speaker 1: and we were asking for a field hospital or a
Speaker 1: place in which people can be isolated for the support
Speaker 1: that people that are at the very bottom of the
Speaker 1: economic letter to have the support that they need so
Speaker 1: that they can actually isolate uh and and and have
Speaker 1: all of those resources. Nothing really happened, and all of
Speaker 1: these uh I think centers at the end of the
Speaker 1: day in something very simple. Our humanity. It seems it's
Speaker 1: not as important as a humanity of others, but what
Speaker 1: we produce is essential. So that's the huge contradiction that
Speaker 1: we have to live with. Yeah, and you're bringing up
Speaker 1: something that's really important. There's a difference between someone who's
Speaker 1: young who decides they want to go to a restaurant
Speaker 1: or they want to go to a bar and they
Speaker 1: contract COVID and they're sick um versus someone who is
Speaker 1: working for very little money that has to put food
Speaker 1: on the table and they don't have a choice whether
Speaker 1: or not they come to work or not. They're not
Speaker 1: making a decision to go to a bar. They're making
Speaker 1: a decision to come to work because that food in
Speaker 1: the table, exactly, and that that means that they actually
Speaker 1: can can do exactly what so many people who give
Speaker 1: immigrants a hard time, they said they don't take care
Speaker 1: of their family, they're on welfare or whatever. No, No,
Speaker 1: they're actually doing what what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1: They are going to work, they are working hard, and
Speaker 1: they're trying to support their families for what for the
Speaker 1: American game to actually become here, contribute to the country,
Speaker 1: and to make sure like everybody else who's come to
Speaker 1: this country since the beginning of time here, they just
Speaker 1: come here, well not everyone, but to come here because
Speaker 1: they want to do They want to do better for
Speaker 1: their family exactly, and and and and and that's it,
Speaker 1: And you're right when it when it has to come
Speaker 1: down to humanity has to come down to look at
Speaker 1: at at everyone and seeing their inherent value. Uh not
Speaker 1: not not the value of how you can abuse their
Speaker 1: work for some sort of you know gain, but but
Speaker 1: the inherent value that they have to contribute back to
Speaker 1: society and and what their next generation is going to bring.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I think you're absolutely right. I think
Speaker 1: you hit on the head. Is it. This is about humanity.
Speaker 1: It's not abou economics, it's it's not about um the
Speaker 1: bottom line, this is about uh, you know, hum human potential,
Speaker 1: human value, human worth, and and and dig and dignity exactly,
Speaker 1: and and I think that that's what we're missing And
Speaker 1: what I'm gonna say is gonna sound really cliche, but
Speaker 1: I think that you know, in in in that paying
Speaker 1: attention to what's going on to to farm workers and
Speaker 1: essentially workers everywhere. Um, we're not just risking um, you know,
Speaker 1: to to to create something that is already unfolding. Uh,
Speaker 1: food crisis. Many plans have closed. Uh it workers get
Speaker 1: seek in the fields. Who's gonna who's gonna harvest the
Speaker 1: food that everybody needs? That's going to create a crisis
Speaker 1: that the cliche parties. Uh, if we are not able
Speaker 1: as a country to do better, we are losing our
Speaker 1: own soul exactly because we're shooting shooting ourselves in the
Speaker 1: foot by ignoring that. Because you cannot leave in a
Speaker 1: contradiction in which in one hand you come out and
Speaker 1: clap for health workers, which is is awesome, you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's an awesome way in which people can do
Speaker 1: something that's symbolic. But if it can't simply be symbolic,
Speaker 1: because even even workers, you know, frontline workers inside the
Speaker 1: hospital need equipment, needs support, need more from this government
Speaker 1: and it should have it. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: farm workers are also people that should be recognized, not
Speaker 1: not with clapping, that's not what we're asking for. But
Speaker 1: but with real change, with real protections, with real demands,
Speaker 1: that makes sense so that we don't lose what is
Speaker 1: desperately so desperately needed. There's more than twenty I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly the number right now, but but
Speaker 1: there are more than twenty states that are seeing spikes
Speaker 1: in in cases of COVID and this is the cost
Speaker 1: for alarm and it should be. The reason that is
Speaker 1: going on is because that same same type of mentality,
Speaker 1: you know, we we disappear when the tomatoes and other
Speaker 1: vegetables make it out of the fields and into the supermarket.
Speaker 1: We disappear of the minds of people. People need to
Speaker 1: remember that if you are or a loved one is
Speaker 1: on the hospital bed, that person is depending on the
Speaker 1: hard work of essential workers that are producing the food
Speaker 1: so that they can recover. We cannot afford to lose that.
Speaker 1: We can't. It's just simply are really on a strategic move.
Speaker 1: And it is not just an error in the strategy.
Speaker 1: It's an error that gets paid in kind in a
Speaker 1: really horrible with the lives of people that shouldn't be
Speaker 1: dying in the hospital. We can reduce that, but we
Speaker 1: need to act. Yeah. I think. I think what it
Speaker 1: comes down to is these workers need to be seen,
Speaker 1: they need to be acknowledged. And you're right, it's not
Speaker 1: just clapping at seven o'clock. UM, it's about long term,
Speaker 1: long term commitment to their viability. UM. Horror, this isn't great.
Speaker 1: Thank thank you very much. UM, this is a fascinating conversation.
Speaker 1: Um Ah, I'm speaking to Herodo Ray Chavez from the
Speaker 1: let me try to my my my Spanish is terrible,
Speaker 1: but Theodorescali are the mocally workers to c I w
Speaker 1: that that sounds good to me, that sounds perfect. UM.
Speaker 1: I would say, Tom, um, thank you. It's an honor
Speaker 1: for me to be able to connect. Finally, UM, I
Speaker 1: think that these conversations need to be going and yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, whenever you want to continue, we can talk
Speaker 1: on different topics to you know, from from the perspective
Speaker 1: of those who are on the bottom, that that needs
Speaker 1: to happen more often because many times you hear people
Speaker 1: speaking from or with a mantle of expertise when they
Speaker 1: don't know what it is to be poor, to be hungry,
Speaker 1: and to be fighting while working. Um. And that needs
Speaker 1: to change. So I thank you for taking this approach
Speaker 1: and inviting us and and I think that people would
Speaker 1: benefit really from the ongoing conversations. So thank you well,
Speaker 1: thank you, keep fighting and stay safe. I want to
Speaker 1: give a special thanks to Rado Chevez a Reyas are
Speaker 1: the coalition of the MARCI workers, and as always big
Speaker 1: thanks to Kristin Castie and Laurie Silverbush of a Place
Speaker 1: to Table. This is Citizen Chef with Me Talklikio. Our
Speaker 1: executive producer is Christopher Hastiotis, our researcher is Justlyn she Olds,
Speaker 1: and our producer and editor is Garrielle Collins. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening and don't forget to subscribe. H