FLORIDA GOV CRIST ANSWERS CIW VIA LETTER

Thank you for contacting Governor Crist's office and sharing your
concerns about human trafficking or modern day slavery. Governor Crist
is eager to know how people feel about the many issues facing our state
and asked that I respond on his behalf.

Governor Crist supports Florida farm workers. On January 11, 2009 the
Governor declared Human Trafficking Awareness Day. In the proclamation,
Governor Crist compared human trafficking to modern day slavery and this
practice is in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of
liberty and human rights upon which our nation was founded.

On March 25, 2009 Governor Crist met with representatives of the
Coalition of Immokalee Workers. From that meeting, the Governor made
clear his opposition to slavery in any form, his support for the
Coalition's Campaign for Fair Food and his encouragement to the Florida
Tomato Grower's Exchange (and its members) to also participate in the
campaign.

Florida's laws to prosecute perpetrators of human trafficking are
essential to eliminating this crime and protecting individual freedom.
In addition, increased awareness of the issues surrounding human
trafficking is necessary so the people of Florida can assist in
addressing the issue. To that end, thank you for your efforts to involve
Floridians and leaders alike in this important work.

Thank you again for taking the time to share your concerns about this
important issue.

Sincerely,

Warren Davis
Office of Citizen Services


Attachments:
Human Trafficking Awareness Day Proclamation, January 11, 2009
Letter to Coalition of Immokalee Workers

CIW GETS QUESTIONS TO PRESIDENT @ TOWN HALL MEETING

REPRINT FROM EMAIL RECEIVED: FROM CIW

And now for something completely different... On Tuesday, President Obama came to Ft. Myers for a town hall meeting on the economic crisis (Ft. Myers and the Southwest Florida area generally are at or near the top in both foreclosures and unemployment rates nationally).

You can find a photo from the event at the CIW website, http://www.ciw-online.org. Here's a brief report:

The town hall was, of course, standing room only, with people camping out two days in advance to secure tickets. Thanks, however, to the efforts of a determined ally, the CIW managed to get inside for the big event. But with a crowd this feverish, it was no surprise that, when it came to the question and answer period, the house went wild with waving hands and jumping people yearning to be heard. Alas, the CIW representatives were lost in the din and never got a chance to ask their question of President Obama.

But all was not lost. As President Obama worked the crowd following the event, our intrepid representatives made their way to the front, got his attention in the five-second window of conversation one is allowed in such settings, and managed to hand-off the question in written form to President Obama, who actually overrode an attempted Secret Service intercept to personally take the question and a CIW button. The President promised to check out the question and the website further later.

Let's hope he did. If so, here's what President Obama saw once he settled down in Air Force One and reached into his pocket for the folded note:

"Mr. President - I'd like to ask a question about human rights.

Last April, Senator Durbin and Senator Kennedy held a hearing in the Senate HELP Committee into the extreme poverty and shameful exploitation of our state's farmworkers, prompted by the latest of seven federal prosecutions for modern-day slavery in Florida's fields over the past decade in which workers were chained inside trucks, beaten, and forced to pick tomatoes for little or no pay.

Sir, Florida's farmworkers have known nothing but economic crisis for decades. What is your position on the epidemic of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields, and what can you do as president to help farmworkers win the fair wages and dignified working conditions they deserve? Would you consider visiting us Immokalee -- the town federal prosecutors call "ground zero for modern-day slavery" -- to learn more about the problem?"

Stay tuned for more from the Campaign for Fair Food, and don't forget to send your emails to Governor Crist - for all the latest on the campaign, go to http://www.ciw-online.org

Thanks - Coalition of Immokalee Workers


Coalition of Immokalee Workers
http://www.ciw-online.org

EMERGENCY EMAIL CAMPAIGN CIW & SFA ALLIES

your quick email will mean a lot to us down here fighting this monster.

arriba l@s de abajo y bajo el pinche muro,
jm

--John-Michael Torres
Steering Committee, Student Farmworker Alliance
956-534-0267
Mission, TX


To Everyone Opposed to the Border Wall,

The Brownsville City Commission may make a border wall deal with the Department of Homeland Security tomorrow. This deal has immediate and long-term implications for border wall opposition nationwide. If the the City of Brownsville enters into a deal with DHS, all hope for a last minute halt to border wall construction from the Obama administration may be lost. In addition, a change in Brownsville's position could undermine all litigation related to the border wall, including El Paso's appeal to the Supreme Court. Brownsville's failure to fight something that is so clearly an injustice and an imposition by the federal goverment may eventually lead to increased militarization of our borders over the long haul.

The deal itself is a bad one. The commissioners are touting the fact that DHS will build "temporary fencing" on Brownsville property, but the contract stipulates that before such temporary fencing comes down, Brownsville will have to pay the entire cost of constructing a new wall, this time a permanent concrete border wall built into the flood-control levee. These levee-border walls have cost neighboring Hidalgo County $10-12 million per mile. Since these walls become an inextricable part of the flood-control levee system, they will never be removed, even if we are one day successful in implementing a saner border policy. However U.S. immigration and border security policy changes over the coming decades, our grandchildren and great-grandchildren will be living with walls because of the levee-border wall design.

No Border Wall urges everyone, regardless of where you live, to make your voices heard and let Brownsville City Commissioners know that you too are a stakeholder. If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, please make a concerted effort to attend the City Commission Public Hearing this Thursday night, February 12 at 5:30 pm at the City Commissioners' Court on the 2nd floor of the City Hall/Federal Building on the corner of 10th and Elizabeth Streets in Brownsville. Plan to arrive 15 minutes early if possible to sign up for a public comment.

If you live elsewhere or are unable to attend the public hearing, please copy and paste the following email addresses and send an email to the Brownsville mayor and city commissioners, letting them know that it's not only the future of Brownsville that's at stake, but the future of our borderlands and our nation as a whole. You might tell them of your community's experience dealing with DHS and border wall construction or of your group's ongoing efforts to stop wall construction.

The commissioners' emails are:
atkinson@cob.us; carlos@cob.us; leoneltgarza@cob.us; ricardo@cob.us; camarillo@cob.us; charlie@cob.us; aptroiani@cob.us; mayorahumada@cob.us

Their names are:
Charlie Atkinson, Carlos Cisneros, Leonel Garza, Ricardo Longoria, Edward Camarillo, Anthony Troiani, and Mayor Pat Ahumada Phone and fax contact information is available at http://www.cob.us/government/commission.asp

Below are some links to related stories.

Thank you for your immediate action on this matter,

Stefanie Herweck
No Border Wall

Sheriff Joe Arpaio being a RACIST

Note this is a reprint from google news:

Approximately 200 convicted illegal immigrants handcuffed together are moved into a separate area of Tent City, by orders of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, for incarceration until their sentences are served and they are deported to their home countries Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in Phoenix. The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has announced plans to keep illegal immigrants separate from the rest of the inmate population at tents in Phoenix that house prisoners.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)


©2009 Google - Map data ©2009 Tele Atlas - Terms of UseAriz. sheriff puts illegal-alien inmates in tents
By TERRY TANG – 23 hours ago

PHOENIX (AP) — The self-proclaimed "toughest sheriff in America" has announced plans to keep illegal immigrants separate from the rest of the inmate population at tents in Phoenix that house prisoners.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio accompanied about 200 inmates — along with members of the media — from an area jail to Tent City on Wednesday.

"This is a population of criminals more adept perhaps at escape," Arpaio said in a news release. "But this is a fence they won't want to scale because they risk receiving quite a shock, literally," he said, referring to the electric fence that surrounds the area.

Arpaio said housing the illegal immigrants separately would save money, although he did not explain how other than to say it's cheaper to house inmates in tents than at traditional jails.

He said his office has received $1.6 million funding from the state that will go toward tackling illegal immigration.

"I expect more arrests," Arpaio said. "I expect to put more tents up."

Arpaio said the move will be more convenient for consulate officials visiting foreign inmates and for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents charged with deporting the inmates after they have served sentences in county jails.

Aside from their residency status, he said the inmates will be treated just like everyone else housed in the tents.

A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment.

Arpaio's announcement has appalled some officials in the area.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox said she thinks Arpaio could potentially be violating the immigrants' rights by keeping them separated, and that she'd like to talk to the Justice Department and have staff there issue an opinion.

"Any time you treat people differently for no reason, you stand to violate rights," she said. "We treat people equally in America. I think it's wrong."

She said the move is a publicity stunt and that Arpaio has done nothing to show the supervisors how it would save money.

Alessandra Soler Meetze, executive director of the ACLU of Arizona, said although Wednesday's move wasn't unconstitutional, it was degrading and unnecessary to shepherd prisoners in front of media.

"You're sort of giving the message that it's OK to treat these inmates differently. It's OK to treat them like circus animals," Soler Meetze said. "He didn't have to make a spectacle. He could've moved them on buses."

She said her organization would look for any constitutional concerns in the future treatment of the segregated inmates.

The Tent City is part of a tough atmosphere that made Arpaio nationally famous. His jails also feature chain gangs and pink underwear for male inmates. Arpaio was recently featured in a Fox Reality Channel show called "Smile ... You're Under Arrest!

Associated Press Writer Amanda Lee Myers contributed to this report.

Tell Florida Governor Crist to take a stand against slavery!

ACTION ALERT!... Tell Florida Governor Crist to take a stand against slavery!
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers is calling on Florida Governor Charlie Crist to commit the full power of his office to address the plague of modern-day slavery in Florida's fields. Add your voice to this call and send an email or fax to the governor today!
Background: Just this past December, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida, a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called one of Southwest Florida's biggest, ugliest slavery cases ever. This became the seventh such slavery case in ten years, which have involved a total of well over 1,000 workers.

Yet, when a reporter called Governor Crist's office for a comment on this most recent case, the governor declined to comment and instead passed the call off to the spokesperson for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Terrence McElroy, who -- not once, but twice -- gave the impression that one slavery case per year is somehow no cause for alarm.

For decades, the silence of Florida's governors in the face of the brutal exploitation of the state's farmworkers has allowed that exploitation -- up to and including modern-day slavery -- to persist.

Join farmworkers and consumers from across Florida and the US in telling Governor Crist that now is the time to break the silence and to ensure that this latest slavery case be the last slavery case ever in Florida's fields.

The letter not only calls on Governor Crist to publicly condemn the continuing existence of modern-day slavery, but also to demand that the Florida Tomato Growers' Exchange end its efforts to nullify the agreements reached between the CIW and leading fast-food and supermarket purchasers of Florida tomatoes to improve farmworker wages and working conditions, the conditions that provide the fertile soil in which modern-day slavery takes root.

We will be collecting signatures, both here in Immokalee and across the country, during the month of February. If there is no response, we plan to deliver the signatures with a creative action in Tallahassee in the month of March. Stay tuned for more details on the petition in the weeks ahead, and in the meantime you can help us gather more signatures among your friends and co-workers, at your school or place of worship!

In December of last year, federal prosecutors from the Department of Justice wrapped up yet another farm labor slavery case in Florida, a case the Chief Assistant US Attorney called one of Southwest Florida's biggest and ugliest slavery cases ever, according to the Ft. Myers News-Press. I am writing today to demand that you use every resource at your command to ensure that it be the last slavery case ever in Florida's fields.

This latest case in which, according to court documents, workers were chained to poles, locked inside trucks, beaten, and robbed of their pay was the seventh such case in just over a decade. Indeed, so shameful is Florida's record of farm labor abuse that another federal prosecutor was prompted to call the state ground zero for modern-day slavery in the pages of the New Yorker magazine. Yet, when a reporter called your office for a comment on the most recent case, you declined to comment and instead passed the call off to the spokesperson for Florida's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, Terrence McElroy, who gave the impression that one slavery case per year is somehow no cause for alarm. Given an opportunity to clarify his statement, Mr. McElroy only underscored his disregard for the victims of this most brutal of human rights violations, terming seven slavery cases in ten years, involving well over 1,000 workers, a rarity. His comments rightly set off a groundswell of outraged reactions by human rights, religious, consumer, and labor organizations and leaders across the country.

Governor Crist, even a single case of slavery in the twenty-first century is too many. As the leader of the state and the single most powerful voice for the protection of every Floridian's fundamental human rights, you must repudiate the words of your spokesperson, and do so with no further delay.

But you must do more than that. The key to ending farm labor slavery is to eliminate the degrading and inhumane working conditions faced by all Florida farmworkers on a daily basis, as these conditions are what allow slavery to flourish. The everyday exploitation of Florida's farmworkers includes:

-Sub-poverty wages - Tomato pickers make, on average, only $10,000/year;
-No raise in nearly 30 years - Pickers are paid virtually the same per-bucket piece rate (roughly 45 cents per 32 lb. bucket) today as they were in 1980. At today's rate, workers have to pick nearly 2.5 TONS of tomatoes just to earn minimum wage for a typical 10-hr day;
-Denial of fundamental labor rights - Farmworkers in Florida have no right to overtime pay, even when working 60-70 hour weeks, and no right to organize or bargain collectively.

You must do everything in your power to ensure an end to those conditions and help lay the groundwork for a future of dignified wages and humane working conditions for farmworkers. Specifically, I join my voice to that of thousands of other concerned consumers of Florida produce to call upon you to:

1. Publicly condemn the existence of modern-day slavery in Florida;

2. Commit the full power of your office to immediately and comprehensively address the plague of abuse and modern-day slavery in Florida's fields by:

a) meeting with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and federal officials who prosecute slavery, and

b) demanding that the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange renounce its opposition to implementing the agreements that socially responsible fast food and supermarket companies have signed to insure better pay and working conditions for tomato pickers, so as to eliminate the conditions that give rise to slavery.

Thank you.


Take action & help tell Governor Crist to END MODERN DAY SLAVERY...this is still going on not only in the growing fields of Florida, but throughout the State of Florida along with other states...whether it be field workers or other types of jobs this modern day slavery is consistenly happening here in the United States, where Slavery was abolished by President Lincoln. You might not think it happens but it goes on right under your very face...right in front of your eyes and you are not aware of it, or at times prefer not to see it.

Many have already been prosecuted in modern day slavery cases, but it must stop totally and for good...for the health and well being of those being held as modern day slaves...after all this is the country of that was created on the principles of freedom ... modern day slavery does not equal freedom for those being held against their will. Governor Crist must step in & put a stop to this!

Support Workers' Rights and the Student-Labor Solidarity!

Note: reprint from CIW & USAS

United Students Against Sweatshops is a diverse network of student organizers concerned with the rights and well being of workers everywhere. There are several cornerstones to our work. The sweat-free campus campaign supports strategic international campaigns to respect garment workers’ rights. USAS plays a key role in the success of these global campaigns. And while USAS made its name fighting sweatshops, we are committed to fighting labor exploitation of all kinds, and so USAS now coordinates a successful national campus living wage campaign! Campus affiliates are organizing with workers and unions for living wages, the right to organize, and affordable health care. USAS also coordinates anti-oppression organizing and campaigns to support farmworkers. Finally, our summer internship program places students abroad with worker rights organizations. We have contacts on over 300 campuses around the country, and thousands of active students leading efforts on campuses for social justice.

RACISM

THE FACE OF RACISM IN YOUR FACE

Source: cosmos.bcst.yahoo.co...http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11407477&ch=4226713&src=news
What would you do if confronted with racism?
What would you do? As the President Elect ran on the platform of 'change', I would definitely think it is time for CHANGE, everyone that came to this country at one point in time, their ancestors did NOT speak English, this country was created by peoples of all races & from all nations, all of the people that came here to make this country America did not speak English.

As a matter of fact this country was, the southwest was owned and populated by Latins, ie, Mexican People, ie, the Mexican Government owned a vast majority of the southwest, so therefore the primary language spoken at that time was Spanish.

People that work in a customer service or any type of job should not behave in this manner, it is unprofessional and unethical! What these minimum wage employees fail to realize is that the the people, ie consumers coming in to purchase or require a service are spending monies, thereby making it possible for them to work there...do you see where I am going with this?

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=11407477&ch=4226713&src=news