From: Trina Tocco (talkalot83@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Jul 12 2002 - 10:07:18 EDT
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 17:51:35 -0000
From: "coaimmwkr" <coaimmwkr@aol.com>
Subject: Victory against modern day slavery in the fields of Florida
Dear Friends,
The members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are proud to
announce a recent victory in the fight against modern-day slavery in
the agricultural industry. On June 26, 2002, after two long years
of a CIW investigation, three Central Florida employers who ran a
violent and coercive slavery operation in citrus were found guilty by
a jury in federal court of charges including: conspiracy to hold
workers in indentured servitude, interference with interstate
commerce through extortion, and use of a firearm during a crime of
violence. The employers, Ramiro, Juan, and Jose Luis Ramos face up
to 25 years in jail and forfeiture of up to $3 million in assets.
In the past five years, the CIW has uncovered and investigated three
large slavery operations in tomato fields and citrus groves, and
acted as a key consultant to the DOJ/ Civil Rights Division in two
other slavery prosecutions. In this most recent case, CIW members
gathered crucial intelligence while working undercover , investigated
the employers' multiple business interests in the area, and helped
liberate several workers.
According to workers, their employers held them in debt on labor
camps in Lake Placid, telling them they owed $1,000 each for their
ride from Arizona to Florida. The Ramos' deducted from workers'
weekly pay for the ride fee, rent, food, work equipment, and so on,
with workers ending up with as little as $70 a week in hand. The
workers were then taken to Ramos' family stores to spend what was
left. The employers used threats of beatings and death to create
a climate of fear and keep workers against their will. Visitors to
the camp were threatened and blocked from leaving.
When the CIW managed to visit one of the camps, workers told us that
they were being held against their will and threatened. We informed
workers of their right to work where they choose in the US. Shortly
afterwards, four workers called for help, and in a harrowing and
tense ordeal CIW members assisted in getting them off the camp.
Previously, the Ramoses had attacked the drivers of an
Immokalee-based transport service which had stopped in Lake Placid to
pick up farmworker passengers on their way north to other jobs. (Such
van/bus services offer low-cost and convenient alternatives to
Greyhound buses for workers who are too poor to own cars but need a
means to get to other jobs once seasonal or temporary work is
finished.)
The transport service drivers (some of whom are CIW members whom you
all know), reported that six or more armed gunmen pulled up in two
pick-up trucks, accusing the drivers of "taking their people." The
bosses held the drivers and worker passengers at gunpoint, threatened
to kill them, beat some of them, smashed the van windows, and
viciously pistol-whipped the van service owner, leaving him
unconscious and permanently disfigured. By attacking vans they
closed down workers' only escape route, blocking the road out of
slavery for captive workers desperate to flee.
You, dear reader, may ask, how did Florida agribusiness and their
clients, the transnational giant fast-food corporations and juice
companies, react to the fifth agricultural slavery conviction in our
great state in as many years? Were they shocked, horrified,
distressed and resolutely determined to redress the extreme imbalance
of power between workers and employers by responding to CIW members'
demands for dialogue and for modernizing the industry? We
regretfully inform you that up to this point, the response from those
corporations has been: a resounding silence.
The CIW has called on the fast-food industry to take responsibility
for sweatshop conditions in the fields. Even farmworkers who
aren't being held in slavery - the majority of the workforce - are
working for what could be called slave wages. To eradicate
slavery and subpoverty wages we must focus on the underlying root
causes of these abuses: antiquated labor relations that give rise to
a whole range of abuses and, in the worst cases, allow debt bondage
to flourish. With the more equitable balance of power that will come
from our overall movement for economic and human rights will also
come the end of slavery.
The good news is that everyday people are demanding justice.
Consumers have shown that they would prefer fair food to fast food,
and this past June a jury of 12 ordinary citizens spoke out against
injustice. Now we have to ask, how many times can the
agricultural industry turn its head and claim that it just doesn't
see? When will the fast-food corporations recognize that they must
ensure that the people who create so much of their mind-boggling
wealth are paid a living wage and work in equitable conditions?
For more on this and previous slavery cases, visit our website at
www.ciw-online.org.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 17:51:35 -0000
From: "coaimmwkr" <coaimmwkr@aol.com>
Subject: Victory against modern day slavery in the fields of Florida
Dear Friends,
The members of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are proud to
announce a recent victory in the fight against modern-day slavery in
the agricultural industry. On June 26, 2002, after two long years
of a CIW investigation, three Central Florida employers who ran a
violent and coercive slavery operation in citrus were found guilty by
a jury in federal court of charges including: conspiracy to hold
workers in indentured servitude, interference with interstate
commerce through extortion, and use of a firearm during a crime of
violence. The employers, Ramiro, Juan, and Jose Luis Ramos face up
to 25 years in jail and forfeiture of up to $3 million in assets.
In the past five years, the CIW has uncovered and investigated three
large slavery operations in tomato fields and citrus groves, and
acted as a key consultant to the DOJ/ Civil Rights Division in two
other slavery prosecutions. In this most recent case, CIW members
gathered crucial intelligence while working undercover , investigated
the employers' multiple business interests in the area, and helped
liberate several workers.
According to workers, their employers held them in debt on labor
camps in Lake Placid, telling them they owed $1,000 each for their
ride from Arizona to Florida. The Ramos' deducted from workers'
weekly pay for the ride fee, rent, food, work equipment, and so on,
with workers ending up with as little as $70 a week in hand. The
workers were then taken to Ramos' family stores to spend what was
left. The employers used threats of beatings and death to create
a climate of fear and keep workers against their will. Visitors to
the camp were threatened and blocked from leaving.
When the CIW managed to visit one of the camps, workers told us that
they were being held against their will and threatened. We informed
workers of their right to work where they choose in the US. Shortly
afterwards, four workers called for help, and in a harrowing and
tense ordeal CIW members assisted in getting them off the camp.
Previously, the Ramoses had attacked the drivers of an
Immokalee-based transport service which had stopped in Lake Placid to
pick up farmworker passengers on their way north to other jobs. (Such
van/bus services offer low-cost and convenient alternatives to
Greyhound buses for workers who are too poor to own cars but need a
means to get to other jobs once seasonal or temporary work is
finished.)
The transport service drivers (some of whom are CIW members whom you
all know), reported that six or more armed gunmen pulled up in two
pick-up trucks, accusing the drivers of "taking their people." The
bosses held the drivers and worker passengers at gunpoint, threatened
to kill them, beat some of them, smashed the van windows, and
viciously pistol-whipped the van service owner, leaving him
unconscious and permanently disfigured. By attacking vans they
closed down workers' only escape route, blocking the road out of
slavery for captive workers desperate to flee.
You, dear reader, may ask, how did Florida agribusiness and their
clients, the transnational giant fast-food corporations and juice
companies, react to the fifth agricultural slavery conviction in our
great state in as many years? Were they shocked, horrified,
distressed and resolutely determined to redress the extreme imbalance
of power between workers and employers by responding to CIW members'
demands for dialogue and for modernizing the industry? We
regretfully inform you that up to this point, the response from those
corporations has been: a resounding silence.
The CIW has called on the fast-food industry to take responsibility
for sweatshop conditions in the fields. Even farmworkers who
aren't being held in slavery - the majority of the workforce - are
working for what could be called slave wages. To eradicate
slavery and subpoverty wages we must focus on the underlying root
causes of these abuses: antiquated labor relations that give rise to
a whole range of abuses and, in the worst cases, allow debt bondage
to flourish. With the more equitable balance of power that will come
from our overall movement for economic and human rights will also
come the end of slavery.
The good news is that everyday people are demanding justice.
Consumers have shown that they would prefer fair food to fast food,
and this past June a jury of 12 ordinary citizens spoke out against
injustice. Now we have to ask, how many times can the
agricultural industry turn its head and claim that it just doesn't
see? When will the fast-food corporations recognize that they must
ensure that the people who create so much of their mind-boggling
wealth are paid a living wage and work in equitable conditions?
For more on this and previous slavery cases, visit our website at
www.ciw-online.org.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Trina Tocco
WMU Peace Center
2101 Wilbur
Kalamazoo, MI 49006
616-344-4076
cell 616-873-1000
home 616-343-6054
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Mon Oct 28 2002 - 02:52:33 EST