Fla. farmworker advocates receive human rights award

But in honoring a trio of labor advocates battling sweatshop conditions that in extreme examples include a form of modern-day slavery, the awards committee did not need to travel to a Third World country.

They simply needed to head to the farms in Southwest Florida, where workers struggle to live without benefits on $7,500 a year off a tomato crop whose price has remained unchanged since 1978.

"We condemn abuses of these rights overseas, and we cannot condone them here at home," Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., said in presenting the award named in honor of his brother, the former attorney general and slain civil rights leader who would have turned 78 on Thursday.

Immigrant farmworkers Julia Gabriel, Lucas Benitez and Romeo Ramirez toiled in the swampy fields of Immokalee, which doubles in population during spring and fall harvest as migrant workers flood the town. There, they joined the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, which has worked with state and federal law enforcement to ensure the successful prosecution of slavery cases five times over the past six years.

Benitez noted the change of scenery as he spoke in an ornate Senate conference room before a crowd of laborers, congressmen and past winners.

"I think we are lost in some sort of dream world," he said. "We're not quite sure which is the real one and which is the dream one."

Still, the three did not use their day to celebrate their achievements but instead took advantage of the soapbox to continue their push for a boycott of Taco Bell, which purchases 50 million pounds of tomatoes each year.

The group wants the company to promise not to buy from growers that promote inhumane working conditions. It is also leaning on the Irvine, Calif.-based company to pay growers an additional penny for each pound of tomatoes sold, saying that would double the amount of money each worker gets for picking the vegetables.

"We are farmworkers. We are in the middle of a struggle. And we are going to continue it until we win it," Ramirez said.

Taco Bell spokeswoman Laurie Schalow said the company has met with the coalition several times and has been trying to work with the individual growers to ameliorate working conditions. But, she said, Taco Bell has been unable to verify the concerns.

"While we appreciate their passion for the cause, we feel it's misdirected," Schalow said.

The RFK Center for Human Rights also will help the coalition develop and meet its goals to change labor standards for migrant workers, including assisting in its fight against Taco Bell.

"I thought it was an award just like that, but I didn't expect a long-term partnership between RFK memorial and myself," said Loune Viaud, last year's winner who worked to get health care for Haitians.

Kennedy said his brother would have appreciated the work of this year's winners, recalling Bobby Kennedy's relationship with Cesar Chavez, who fought for the rights of California grape growers 35 years ago.

"I know that my brother would be especially proud of this year's honorees because the cause and plight of farmworkers was so much a part of his heart and soul in those years," he said.