Profit and Doing the Right Thing: The Coalition of Immokalee Workers Hits the Road

With dramatic events happening around the world in places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and now Jordan, Bahrain, and Yemen, it's easy to forget about stuff happening here at home, originating out of Wisconsin.  I wrote a little bit about this the other day, and though I may have come off as a bit derisive with respect to comparing what is happening here with the uprisings overseas, I don't want to minimize the importance of what is happening in our politics right now...

And it's not just in Wisconsin, for sure.

I got an email from Marc Rodrigues of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.  You going to have a tomato on that sandwich at lunch today?   Maybe eat a strawberry?  A grapefruit for breakfast?  Probably harvested by a worker down in Immokalee (Collier County) -- a low-wage laborer who is probably Hispanic, Native American, or Haitian.

Marc says the workers, who fight for things like fair wages and decent working conditions, are embarking on a tour of states in the Northeast where they've run into problems at Stop & Shop, which is a grocery chain up there.

They'll be touring the Tampa Bay area here in about a week.

You know what George Jenkins, the founder of Publix, used to say?  "Don't let making a profit stand in the way of doing the right thing." 

How 'bout that. 

Well, turns out maybe some Publix folks need reminding of the words of Mr. Jenkins.  Look, as a fellow spokesman, let me just say to Publix spokesman Dwaine Stevens that atrocities, no matter where they occur, are everbody's business.  And if they're occurring in the fields where you get your produce, then brother, you'd better make it your business.

I wish the Coalition of Immokalee Workers well on their tour.  Safe journey, friends.

The fight for equality continues.