Hundreds march to protest wages

Migrant farm workers should arrive at the governor’s home today, but he says he will not discuss wages and working conditions with them.

[Times photos: Douglas R. Clifford] Oscar Nolasco, left, and his friend Antonio Lopez line up to march Saturday with about 300 marchers on U.S. 90 southeast of Quincy en route to Tallahassee.

By RYAN DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001

QUINCY -- Juan Corona doesn't want his 8-year-old brother to have to pick strawberries for $20 a day on weekends.

"We need the money, so my parents take us to work," said Juan Corona, 14, of Dade City. "They need a raise."

While his family kneeled in east Pasco County fields on Saturday, Juan was one of about 300 marchers who toted signs and carried his family's plight down the right lane of U.S. 90 southeast from Quincy toward Tallahassee.

Today the protesters, who are demanding better wages and working conditions for the state's farm workers, will end their 22-mile journey with a rally in front of the Governor's Mansion. They want Gov. Jeb Bush to organize labor talks between the farm workers and the growers.

"This is the beginning of big things in Florida," said Evelina Bearden of Dade City's Farmworker's Self-Help.

The March for Farmworker Justice includes 39 protesters from Self-Help, a social service and advocacy group, as well as a handful of farm workers from Hillsborough County.

But it's not the size or length of this march that defines its significance, organizers said.

The paradelike protest marks the first major push for better wages and working conditions by a newly formed coalition of the state's five largest farm worker advocacy groups: one each from Dade City, Quincy, Apopka, Immokalee and Winter Garden.

"There's still a fight to be mounted in the state of Florida," said advocate Frank Curiel of Quincy. "What we're doing is a precursor to it."

In a Friday letter to Curiel, Bush said he will be unable to meet with the farm workers today. The growers are not interested in a negotiation session, Bush said, and it is not his role to get involved in a private labor dispute.

In the letter, Bush touted Friday's announcement that a new housing project will be built for farm workers in Immokalee and said he supports their cause.

The farm workers say they want more.

The echo of a distinctly Latin drumbeat led them over the rolling countryside toward the capital, followed by a pickup truck with speakers and a line of protesters that stretched two-tenths of a mile. Many carried signs scrawled in a language they don't speak, English, and some carried elaborate displays akin to parade floats.

The centerpiece was a life-size depiction of former President George Bush, the governor's father, sitting at a table with a farm worker and a sign that said, "We deserve a place at this table."

Farm workers struggle to earn $9,000 a year without benefits, according to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the state's most prominent local advocacy group. Because laws prevent them from forming a powerful bargaining union, this weekend's gathering marks the closest Florida's farm workers have come to unity, organizers said.

They began Saturday gathered in a circle outside a church in Quincy, a town of about 7,000 that sees its population nearly double twice a year when farm workers arrive for spring and fall tomato seasons.

They marched 12.6 miles, crossing the Leon County line Saturday, and will resume this morning, starting with a roadside church service.

The organizers describe the march as a civil rights protest in the mold of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the weekend preceding the holiday in his honor.

"He would say, "In spite of the difficulties, keep this movement rolling,' " said Lucas Benitez, a leader of the Immokalee Workers, which brought 125 protesters.

Benitez said he expects more workers to join the march today. Saturday is a work day for most, and it's hard for them to miss a day of pay.

Many of the Dade City workers sent their children.

"They let me go," Juan Corona said, "because they want me to change the future.

"This little thing we're doing right now, it could turn out real big in the future."

- Ryan Davis can be reached at (800) 333-7505 ext. 3452 or by e-mail at rdavis@sptimes.com.

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