The Plant City Police Department is preparing to meet about 160 protestors that are part of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in order to escort them throughout the city streets.
The protestors started March 3 in Fort Myers. Since then, they have paraded the streets of Punta Gordo, Port Charlotte, Venice, Sarasota, Bradenton, Palmetto, Ruskin, Riverview, Tampa, Dover, and Seffner.
Today they are scheduled to march down major roads in Plant City, including Alexander Street, James L. Redman Parkway and Park Road. This will cause traffic delays, as the right lane of the road will be blocked off.
“We don’t do this type of thing very often,” Officer Tray Towles said. “We’re going to try and make it run as smoothly as possible.”
After Plant City, the protestors will meet their final destination, Lakeland, where the headquarters of Publix are. The Coalition and their allies are protesting again the grocery chain and want an agreement for fair wages and humane labor standards for tomato harvesters.
The coalition began as a small a community-based organization of mainly Latino, Mayan Indian and Haitian immigrants working in low-wage jobs throughout the state of Florida in 1993.
Since then it has grown and gained national attention.
After a four year boycott of similar proportion, the coalition was able to come to an agreement with Taco Bell for fair wages and humane labor standards in 2005. Taco Bell agreed to pay 1 cent more per pound for all tomatoes it buys from Florida growers. Given that workers today receive roughly 1.3 cents per pound (40-45 cents for every 32-lb bucket), the agreement raised the amount to an increase of roughly 75% for workers picking tomatoes for Taco Bell.
Other companies like McDonalds and Burger King, agreed to work with the coalition.
After 200 miles, only the approaching march of the protestors will tell if Publix will agree to work with the coalition.