Students and KFTC members demand that Kroger supports worker's rights
University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community and Technical college students were joined by KFTC members to deliver petitions and letters to the Euclid Ave Kroger store in Lexington asking them to support worker's rights in Florida.
This action is one of many across the country being coordinated by the Florida based Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW).
The CIW is a community-based organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida. They fight for, among other things: a fair wage for the work they do, more respect on the part of their bosses and the industries where they work, better and cheaper housing, stronger laws and stronger enforcement against those who would violate workers' rights, the right to organize on their jobs without fear of retaliation, and an end to involuntary servitude in the fields.
Students on both campuses have spent the last month getting these petitions signed. There is also an online version that you can sign here.
The letters ask Kroger to support worker's rights by doing the following:
- Pay an additional penny per pound for tomatoes purchased to directly increase the wages of tomato pickers;
- Implement an enforceable code of conduct to ensure safe and fair working conditions for farmworkers, including zero tolerance for modern-day slavery;
- Ensure a voice for farmworkers in monitoring improvements and reporting abuses.
The manager of the Euclid store accepted the petitions and said she would pass them along to her superiors but she declined to comment on the issue.
In January the student organizers of the campaign here in Lexington plan to regroup and make a plan to get more petitions signed and distributed around to the other Kroger stores in town. If you'd like to be a part of this work contact Joan Braun at [email protected]
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