Note #9239 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:
06205 March 10, 2006
CBS special will highlight religious views on immigration
PC(USA) included as backer of campaigns to improve the lot of migrant farm workers
by Dan Webster NCC News and Information
NEW YORK - An interfaith religion special, "A Fair Harvest: Religion's Response to Immigration Issues," will be released by the CBS Television Network to its nationwide affiliates on Sunday, April 23 (8-8:30 a.m. ET; local broadcast times will vary).
In the program, the Rev. Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches, and the Rev. George Anderson, an editor at the Jesuit magazine, America, will add their perspective to the religious response to immigration issues.
"A Fair Harvest" is about recent attempts to improve the lot of migrant farm workers. In the years since the 1960 CBS Reports special, "Harvest of Shame," exposed the slave wages and deplorable working conditions of migrant workers, there has been steady but very slow progress to right the wrongs. Still, even today, most farm workers are paid about as much as they earned 30 years ago.
The broadcast highlights two migrant farm workers' struggles in which the NCC was involved. One, in Immokalee, FL, is about a group of tomato pickers from Central America and Haiti who organized their own workers' coalition.
The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) staged hunger strikes, marches across Florida and many other unsuccessful attempts at bringing attention to abuse of workers, low pay and other issues. When the growers and owners refused to speak with them, the CIW initiated a consumer boycott of Taco Bell, which buys 10 million pounds of winter tomatoes from Florida growers.
Local churches came on board and national church organizations followed - chief among them the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - helping the coalition to organize "truth tours." This enabled the workers in settings across the country to make their case, present a human face, and encourage church members to quit buying from Taco Bell.
The boycott caused Taco Bell (owned by Yum! Brands) little financial damage, but a good deal of bad press. The corporation responded with a modest $100,000 a year to be sent to the farmers for distribution to the pickers of Taco Bell tomatoes. This actually doubled their pay, from 1.3 cents a pound to 2.3 cents, and brought their two-ton a day yield to perhaps $90 from the $50 they had earned before.
The CIW has now targeted McDonalds, a much bigger buyer of tomatoes than Taco Bell. If it agrees to another penny per pound, migrant wages could "skyrocket" - relatively speaking.
The program's other segment touches on the Mt. Olive Pickle Company in North Carolina. With help from the NCC, local councils and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, pickers in the Mt. Olive area succeeded in getting a boost in wages for picking cucumbers for Mt. Olive.
The migrant farm workers' positions are articulated by Robert Mendez and Eucebio Rodriguez, two Guatemalans in their early 20s who are full-time pickers and part-time activists for the CIW. In addition, viewers hear from Lucas Benitez, a picker of oranges and tomatoes for 13 years before becoming a founder of the coalition.
Adding their experiences are Father Joe Clifford, pastor of St. Columbkille Catholic Church in Ft. Myers; Rev Jim Boler, a United Church of Christ pastor on Sanibel Island; Rev. Noelle Damico, liaison between the PC(USA) and the CIW; and Bert Perry, of the National Farmworkers Ministry.
John P. Blessington is the program's executive producer; Ted Holmes is the producer. They had the cooperation of the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, whose members include the National Council of Churches, The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and a consortium of Jewish and Muslim groups.
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