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Article

17 Nov 2009

Author:
Barry Estabrook, Atlantic [USA]

At Florida Tomato Protests, Backlash [USA]

For the past several weeks the CIW [Coalition of Immokalee Workers] has been holding demonstrations at stores operated by Publix Super Markets.. Publix has been unresponsive to years of requests that it join the coalition's Campaign for Fair Food, a program that mandates steps to prevent human trafficking and gives field hands a one-penny-per-pound raise (...the difference between abject poverty and a living wage)... During a Port Charlotte demonstration, Jordan Buckley, also of the CIW, wondered why store officials were allowing one particular photographer unfettered access, while preventing others from filming at all... "I wonder how Publix PR people would feel if they were in the same position--if there was a stranger who was found later to be falsely identifying himself filming their children?" said [Lucas] Benitez [of CIW]... Maria Brous, Director of Media and Community Relations at Publix...[said] "...We like to document activities at our stores. It is typical for us to video-record events at our stores--positive ones, too..." Brous said that the store did not intend to destroy or give the footage of children back to the parents. "I think it's unfair to claim that we did anything inappropriate. The children were there as part of the event," she said. [refers to companies that have agreed to CIW demands: McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell (part of Yum! Brands), Whole Foods, Compass Group, East Coast Growers and Packers]