Support the CIW Campaign, Save Your Publix Receipts!

Yes, Publix, We Care!

Here is another way those of you who shop at Publix can help the farmworkers in Immokalee.

For the next month we want people of Southwest Florida to save all their Publix receipts.

Last year, an official spokesman for Publix stated that: “If there are some atrocities going on, it is not our business” (Baldwin County News, 12/11/10). The atrocities he referred to were actual modern slavery conditions found on Florida farms which have led to several federal convictions and the imprisonment of abusers of field workers, tomato pickers in particular, who labor in Publix’s supply chain.

We customers want to show Publix’s corporate management that we care about the ordinary workers who help bring food to our tables. We want Publix to live up to the motto of its founder, George Jenkins, “Do not let making a profit stand in the way of doing the right thing.” We want Publix to live up to its mission statement to be “responsible citizens in our communities” who would “never knowingly disappoint” us.

To show that we care, we will collect all our Publix cash register receipts during the month of October and November and present them to the Environmental and Peace Education Center (EPEC) to be sent to Publix corporate headquarters in Lakeland with signed letters supporting the CIW effort to secure a penny-a-pound raise for picking tomatoes and the other rights already supported by major food providers such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and others. We will tally our receipts and send them to remind Mr.Crenshaw and show him how many customers and how much $$money$$ they will lose if they don’t sign on to the CIW agreement.

As one of Florida’s largest purchasers of tomatoes, Publix has a responsibility to monitor all the way down to the farm not only the color, size and quality of the tomatoes it sells but also the quality of the life and working conditions of the people who harvest them.

We urge those of you who shop at Publix to join in this effort with other community members in Southwest Florida to show that,

Yes, Publix, We Care!

Community Outreach for Peace

The goals of EPEC’s Community Outreach for Peace project are to help transform United States foreign policies away from intervention and empire. We seek to lessen the military footprint of the United States around the world by creating a more effective peace and antiwar movement. Organization and education are our tools. To learn more or get involved, call Tom Guelcher at (239) 247-4319 or e-mail epectom (at) comcast.net