Re the April 21 Other Views column We must treat farmworkers fairly, by Sens. Dick Durbin, Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a labor-union organization, now has linked its ''penny-per-pound'' initiative to an antislavery movement in order to step up pressure on national restaurant chains. The members of The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange want to set the record straight.
Regarding slavery and human trafficking, we are absolutely on the same side as everyone else. Tomato growers condemn slavery and are on record that we will work with law enforcement to ensure violators are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
As for the extra penny per pound, we don't object to fast-food chains paying extra wages to workers who pick the tomatoes they buy. Our members simply cannot be the conduit through which the payment flows for a variety of legal reasons. The restaurant companies and the CIW are certainly capable of setting up a system to ensure extra wages go to the harvesters without involving the growers.
Under the cover of being a social organization hoping to better the lives of farmworkers, the CIW is, in fact, a labor organization and certain employees of the CIW are business agents as defined under Florida statutes. CIW is organized and acts for the purposes of improving its members' hours of employment, rates of pay, working conditions and grievances relating to employment. What's more, the CIW is attempting to negotiate wage increases for tomato workers by using secondary boycotts against the fast-food chains.
We pay our workers competitive wages given that these are low-skilled, entry-level jobs. Just as any other business, we cannot survive without our workers. If we don't pay them fairly and treat them fairly, we would have no workforce to help us provide Americans with a bountiful, nutritious and healthful produce.
REGGIE BROWN, executive vice president, Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, Maitland
