> Published Monday, February 21, 2000, in the Miami Herald
>
> Migrants stage march over wages
>
> FORT MYERS -- (AP) -- About 150 migrant tomato pickers
> are marching 230 miles to Orlando, hoping to jump-start
> negotiations with growers over better wages.
>
> ``Maybe the road seems a little long, but that's how
> we're going to succeed in getting justice,'' said Lucas
> Benitez, a leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
> which is not a union.
>
> The group departed from a Fort Myers church Saturday,
> weaving through downtown. They will continue along U.S.
> 41 to Tampa and east to Orlando. They will conclude with
> a March 4 rally at association headquarters.
>
> Officials with the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association
> have not recognized the coalition as representing their
> workers and have refused to meet with its leaders.
>
> The Florida Tomato Exchange, another industry
> association, said growers can't afford a pay hike because
> low prices are being paid for produce this season.
>
> The pickers gained a 13 percent pay increase last year,
> their first in several years, but they say that is not
> enough. They say tomato workers earn about $9,000
> annually. They receive about 45 cents for every 32-pound
> sack they pick.
>
> The growers say that translates to about $9 an hour,
> wages they say are competitive with Florida's other farm
> and blue-collar jobs.