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In Immokalee,Florida, for example, five farm workers on January 12 entered the 24th day of a hunger strike, protesting wages they say are lower than they were 20 years ago and have demanded talks about a raise from the growers who hire them and their fellow migrants. On December 20 they began drinking only water and juices, a couple of weeks after more than 1,900 of their co-workers signed documents demanding a meeting with the region's 10 leading growers.
The tomato pickers' goal is 60 cents for each 32-pound bucket they pick. Some 20 years ago workers in the tomato fields adjacent to the Everglades made about 50 cents a bucket, a rate that was cut to 45 cents 10 years ago and is 40 cents a bucket.
Local growers say the lower rates are offset by improved working conditions, such as staked plants, that allow the workers to pick more tomatoes in a day.
Greg Asbed, a local activist who helped organize the nonprofit Coalition of Immokalee Workers group five years ago, conceded recently to the Washington Post's Donald P. Baker that while a picker can make $80 a day at the season's peak, on many days, particularly rainy ones, the workers get nothing. The important figure, Asbed said, is that the workers average only $9,000 a year.
The coalition is also seeking to eliminate a pay system used by some growers called 'a day and a dime,' which it contends punishes the best workers. Under that plan, workers are paid the federal minimum wage of $41 for an eight-hour day
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