In December, the Independent newspaper reported the story of
three Florida fruit-pickers held captive and exploited by their
employer for over a year. When they were found, they carried
scars of beatings to their head and body, knife wounds, bruising
and cuts. They had been forced into debt, physically beaten
and locked up at night to prevent them from escaping.
A week after they escaped, the police discovered that a forced
labour operation was supplying fruit pickers to local growers
in Florida. The suppliers were a well known family in the area,
who detectives later found out, were keeping another 11 men
against their will at a house in Florida.
The majority of people affected by exploitation on farms are
migrant workers from Mexico, Guatemala and Haiti, compelled
by economic need to look for work abroad and then become trapped
in forced labour situations. Pickers are paid 45 cents (22p)
for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes collected and a worker
has to pick nearly two and a half tons of tomatoes in order
to reach minimum wage.
In the first five months of the year, most of America's fresh
tomatoes are grown in Florida. They then make their way to the
shelves of American supermarkets and the tables of some of the
country's most popular restaurants and fast-food outlets.
As Antonio, a former exploited fruit-picker in Florida says:
"People don't realise that someone's suffering. We're the
ones that pick the food but they don't see our sweat and exploitation".
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on forced labour and exploitation in US agriculture.
