Our position remains the same and has been for years. This opportunity/issue of pay is between the employer and it’s workers. We don’t pay the suppliers workers, that is not our responsibility but the responsibility of their employer.
This doesn't have anything to do with Mr. Crenshaw personally. This is a labor dispute, and they are asking us to get involved in something we are not a part of. We don’t plan to meet with this group.
Jordan Buckley, who works for CIW ally Interfaith Action, disagrees. He says that the “labor dispute” argument is undermined by November’s agreement with the FTGE, an exchange which oversees nearly all of the state’s largest tomato growers. He also says he’s been “surprised” at the company’s response, given that its founder, George Jenkins, was known to be more community-minded than the average CEO. “It’s apparent now that it’s a very different Publix,” Buckley says. The CIW and its allies will be meeting later this week to draw up plans for their next move—among the ideas floating around is to utilize the “Publix guarantee,” which begins with the phrase “We will never knowingly disappoint you,” to their advantage. In its scrappier days the group staged hunger strikes to advance their cause, but that action doesn’t appear to be at the forefront of consideration today—at least not yet. “That’s definitely a tool that the CIW has used before,” Buckley says. “I wouldn’t rule that out, but wouldn’t know that it’s necessarily on the top of the list, either.”We welcome readers to submit letters regarding articles and content in Orlando Weekly. Letters should be a minimum of 150 words, refer to content that has appeared on Orlando Weekly, and must include the writer's full name, address, and phone number for verification purposes. No attachments will be considered. Writers of letters selected for publication will be notified via email. Letters may be edited and shortened for space.
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