Migrant workers screwed again.

[rhino47]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/29/opinion/29schlosser.html?em&ex=1196571600&en=191dd58e48f30af3&ei=5087%0A
HE migrant farm workers who harvest tomatoes in South Florida have one of the nation’s most backbreaking jobs. For 10 to 12 hours a day, they pick tomatoes by hand, earning a piece-rate of about 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket. During a typical day each migrant picks, carries and unloads two tons of tomatoes. For their efforts, this holiday season many of them are about to get a 40 percent pay cut.
(snip)
During the past decade, the United States Justice Department has prosecuted half a dozen cases of slavery among farm workers in Florida. Migrants have been driven into debt, forced to work for nothing and kept in chained trailers at night. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers — a farm worker alliance based in Immokalee, Fla. — has done a heroic job improving the lives of migrants in the state, investigating slavery cases and negotiating the penny-per-pound surcharge with fast food chains.

Now the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange has threatened a fine of $100,000 for any grower who accepts an extra penny per pound for migrant wages. The organization claims that such a surcharge would violate “federal and state laws related to antitrust, labor and racketeering.” It has not explained how that extra penny would break those laws; nor has it explained why other surcharges routinely imposed by the growers (for things like higher fuel costs) are perfectly legal.

[flashl]

1. Say it LOUD. SLAVERY NEVER ENDED IN THE UNITED STATES.

"the United States Justice Department has PROSECUTED half a dozen cases of SLAVERY among farm workers in Florida"

SLAVERY NEVER ENDED IN THE UNITED STATES.

All of the talk and explainations about the U.S. economic: models, classes, and growth NEVER address the human suffering and misery in the lower economical strata.