"Farmworkers march in Palm Beach, calling for better wages, conditions"

More than 300 farmworkers and supporters marched last weekend through a town with multimillion-dollar homes to call attention to businesses they say are not doing their part to end forced labor on farms.

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... Wendy’s, Publix and Kroger are among the businesses that have thus far refused to join the Fair Food Program, whose goal is to end worker abuse on farms.

The sponsors of the march, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, developed the program after finding what they say were far too many cases of abuse, wage theft and sexual harassment.

The coalition has persuaded dozens of businesses such as McDonald’s, Walmart, Trader Joe’s and Subway to participate in the Fair Food Program. The farms associated with them must maintain certain standards to ensure that farm workers are not abused. The Fair Food Program allows workers to complain about working conditions without fear of retaliation.

The coalition thus far has been unable to persuade Publix, Kroger and Wendy’s to participate, and those companies were the target of the coalition’s protest Saturday as workers held signs calling for people to boycott them.

According to the coalition, “two parallel worlds exist side-by-side within the farming community: the world of freedom from abuse on farms in the program and the world of harsh exploitation outside its protections.

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