Jackson County’s Vecinos Farmworker Health Program are teaming up with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to protest at Publix in Hendersonville after news circulated that the grocery chain began purchasing tomatoes from a grower with a lengthy history of labor law violations.
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Labor fined Red Diamond Farms — whom Publix is doing business with — $1.4 million for a series of violations to the labor code, stating in a press release that they:
- “Provided preferential treatment to H-2A guest workers over corresponding domestic workers when it paid the guest workers higher rates and offered them more hours than the domestic workers, and failed to offer free housing or pay transportation costs to the domestic workers”
- “Failed to disclose the conditions of employment to the domestic workers when they were not provided a contract, as the law requires”
- “Concealed the presence of the domestic workers by segregating the payrolls, and denying their presence during the investigation”
- “Failed to keep accurate and complete payroll records”
Also in 2016, the CIW had unsuccessfully attempted to get Publix to sign on to its Fair Food Program, an initiative to ensure grocery retailers source their products from growers with ethical operating practices.
The protest will take place at the Hendersonville Publix on June 29 at 5:30 p.m..
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